A QUARTER 
CENTURY OF 
CUMULATIVE 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 


1898 1923 





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A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 


RE UROSEEGi ANDsIPROSPECT 


‘No extended record of facts grows too old to be useful provided 
only that we have a ready and sure way of getting at the par- 
ticular fact or facts we are in search of. And this leads me 
to speak of what I conceive to be one of the principal tasks to 
be performed by the present and the coming generation of scholars, 
not only in the medical, but in every department of knowledge. 
I mean the formation of indexes, and more especially of indexes 
to periodical literature. —OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 


THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 
NEW YORK 


125 


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2 







FOREWORD 


At the quarter century milestone we pause for a look backward and 
for a momentary scanning of the future. The retrospect may seem to the 
reader without dramatic appeal and may be impressive as a record of busi- 
ness growth only to those who are familiar with the casualties of biblio- 
graphical enterprises. [he prospect has plenty of food for the imagina- 
tion. 

In the time taken from daily duties to chronicle the growth of the 
Company we have not been unmindfu] that, in a work which we are 
pleased to call cooperative, a full measure of credit is due to our patrons 
who thruout the years have given us their financial and moral backing. 
Our friends have come all the way with us. [hey have supported open- 
mindedly each new venture thru the period of experiment. ‘They have 
offered constructive suggestions and advice. [hey have heartened us with 
frequent letters of encouragement and appreciation. ‘They have even had 
a sympathetic understanding of the Company’s uncompromising stand always 
to put first its professional service rather than profit making. 

From publishers we have received not only encouragement but co- 
operation in the supply of periodicals to be indexed and review copies of 
new books from which, as a final disposition, selections have been made for 
our library of more than fifteen thousand volumes. 

A further gratifying reflection is that other publishers in our own 
field have often thru their columns expressed their good will; notably 
Mr. Richard R. Bowker, publisher of the Library Journal and Pub- 
lisher’s Weekly, who, when he might have regarded us as competitors in a 
limited field, looked upon us rather as fellow members of his profession. 
He was a gentle critic of our early efforts and has commended generously 
whatever successes we have achieved. 

Further, tribute is due the workers inside the organization whose pro- 
fessional zeal has ever made a secondary consideration of financial rewards. 
One may say in acknowledgment of their loyalty that they have “‘held the 
beginning of their confidence steadfast‘ thru the years. 

The booklet has been prepared for our friends, patrons, and past 
and present associates who at various times and especially during the un- 
certain first years gave generous aid. We cannot mention all of them. 
We only hope that each will read this page and accept as personal our 
sincere gratitude. 

THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY. 
February, 1923 





CONTENTS 


PAGE 
FOREWORD in te ae ite ote hr er le Ree ee 7 1 5 
PROGRESS 

Slewenty-tiVeml(earseG i CslOWth sie ae 9 


Chronology, Methods and Mechanics of the Book Catalogs 


and Periodical Indexes 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL METHODS 


pienem@umllativer trian ante ere see = Crna a 31 
Beremlictional val: lan pee ene mee ie een ee ere ayes bys 
Hines Services basissOleC@harge ee ee ee 35) 
Scnsistcnes OUD] cctmLileadingsmae ee eee 338) 
farintccm ndexesavs aC aldswa. aus ares noe ts ee 36 
THE WHys AND WHEREFORES OF BIBLIOGRAPHY 
siihesbibitocraphica mires sate ee ee ey 37 
Bipliograpuicalm isl anning aenetek erent eee ee ge Sy) 
A Look AHEAD 
@ooperalon=—© |deande Newer ee ate, 


INewatarintings bp rocesseseassw> on pe re ee ts Sv 40 
New Fields 


RES SONNE: Loa re ene ee” Chie 0 Ee ie i eT yn 4] 


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ress 
a aes 
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mie 









PROGRESS 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF GROWTH 


HE month of December of the 
f year 1889 records a _ venture 
which in 1898 led Mr. Wilson 
into the field of bibliography and 
established the present business of 
The H. W. Wilson Company. 
Two students of the University 
of Minnesota formed a partner- 
ship under the name of Morris 
Mm & Wilson for the purpose of 
dealing in student textbooks and _ supplies. 
Previous to this time the partners, Henry S. 
Morris and Halsey W. Wilson, had been 
doing a small retail book business by taking 
orders from their fellow students and deliv- 
ering the books in person. The total capital 
of the new firm amounted to the sum of $100, 
_part of which was borrowed. During the 
first year the young promoters found it neces- 
sary to carry morning papers” to meet college 
expenses, as every penny of profits from the 
new enterprise was needed to develop the 
business. 

The advantage of a bookshop to the Uni- 
versity won from the authorities permission 
to occupy a nine by twelve 
room in the old main build- 
ing. Shelves, cases, counters 
—all in a nine by twelve! And if memory 
serves aright a mimeographing outfit found 
space for running off overnight the next 
day’s history or literature syllabus for Uni- 
versity classes. [he ingenuity which it took 
to set up a shop in these narrow limits was 
matched by the skill of the partners to arrange 
academic and commercial activities so that 
one of the two was always behind the counter 
when the other was in the classroom. 





Book Store 


Experience 





*Mr. Wilson says in his jottings, “One may doubt 
the educational value of a morning newspaper route 
for a literary or publishing career. But that the 
smell of printer's ink even from newspapers has its 
stimulating influence is borne out by the fact that 
of my two companions on the regular 5 a. m. trip 
to the newspaper office one is professor of history 
at Dartmouth and the other editor of Living Age.” 


9 


About two years later Mr. Morris was 
graduated and Mr. Wilson acquired sole in- 
terest in the business which attained the dig- 
nity of a full fledged bookshop when the 
University granted larger quarters in the same 
building. The change brought with it also 
the supervision of the University Post Office, 
the advantage of which to the growing busi- 
ness was the daily visit of the student throng. 

As the scope of the undertaking widened 
to keep pace with the rapid growth of the 
University, Mr. Wilson faced the usual book- 
store problems, conspicuous 
among which was the lack 
of a convenient trade cata- 
log. The author, the title or the publisher 
—never all three—would be submitted by 
patrons with a request for full information 
about a new book. Then followed moments, 
even hours, of search through various cata- 
logs for the data. It was tedious, uneconomi- 
cal, exasperating! Necessity, therefore, the 
proverbial quickener of new ideas, embold- 
ened Mr. Wilson to risk the publication, on 
his own account, of a monthly cumulative 
catalog of books. Estimating the cost at 
$500 a year and optimistically hoping for 
five hundred subscribers at $1 each to meet 
expenses, this editor-publisher, like the libra- 
rian who contended that his catalog cost him 
nothing because he made it himself, expected 
to do the compiling, copymaking, proofread- 
ing, bookkeeping and mailing at home even- 
ings, with the assistance of his enthusiastic 
wife whose labor was equally cheap. 

In February of 1898 the first number of 
the CUMULATIVE Book INDEX was issued, 
thus initiating the cumulative feature as it has 


The Mother 


of Invention 


since been developed in the 
publications of The Wilson 
Company. This number and 
the circular letter accompanying went forth 
to sell a new idea. Quietly, expectantly, the 
tiny office of the CUMULATIVE Book INDEX 


The First 


Subscribers 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY . 


awaited the first subscription. Nor was the 
wait a long one. From a bookshop in Pitts- 
burgh, presided over by Mr. Waters, came 
the first evidence of faith in the scheme in the 


form of a crisp dollar bill and, best of all, a 


word of encouragement. [he demand was 
great for the catalog, he said. He welcomed 
it as a much needed time-saver. He hoped 
that the venture would succeed. The next 
mail brought a subscription from John Wana- 
maker and another from Ellen Plumb ot 
Emporia, Kansas. [he first year was mem- 
orable for nearly three hundred subscribers 
and a rapidly growing deficit. While sub- 
scriptions increased in succeeding years in 
sufficient numbers to cover the cost of the 
undertaking as originally planned, so many 
expensive improvements seemed desirable that 
for many years an annual deficit always 
reared its head just as it was about to be 
wholly eliminated. It was not until recent 
years that the enlarged and improved enter- 
prise, as it exists today, was really on a firm 
financial footing. 

After a few months the publishing depart- 
ment was moved from the publisher’s home 
to a corner of the bookshop where Miss 
Marion E. Potter, without 
special bibliographical train- 
ing but with a broad aca- 
demic foundation, began the editorial work 
on the CUMULATIVE Book INDEX. To 
show something of the utter disregard of com- 
pensation which characterized Miss Potter’s 
early attitude toward her work, may be cited 
that when her first salary check was handed 
to her she looked it over with a puzzled ex- 
pression and said, ‘‘What is this for>”’ 

Before the printing of the first annual 
cumulation the INDEX was installed in a 
small room in the University Y.M.C.A. 
building adjoining an embryo printing shop. 
The editor, one assistant, the printer and the 
proof filled the office. There 
was room for nothing more 
but the fumes of gasoline es- 
caping from the adjoining room during the 
process of type cleaning. When lines of type 
were arranged in order the printer brought 
the galley proof to the editor and stood at 
her elbow while she read it. Immediately 


First 
Editor 


Early 
Processes 


thereafter he made it up into pages, a pro- 
cedure which our present staff, used to re- 
peated checking over of proof, would regard 
with horror and alarm. 

Some laughable mistakes enlivened the 


early stages of the publication. One issue 
appeared with the startling 
entry, “Heroes of the Revo- We Panay 


lution, ’. followed by the line, 

“Each one sliding off and showing the next.”’ 
Again the editor’s eye caught in her latest 
number, “‘Baptists, see also Drunkards’’; and 
“Biography of the Prince of Whales.’’ Oc- 
curences of this character made plain the 
necessity of various precautions against similar 
errors in the future. A satisfactory system 
was gradually evolved, founded on practical 
experience in making mistakes. 

The improved system, together with new 
features, called for a constantly increasing 
staff of workers and more space. Accord- 
ingly, Mr. Wilson negotiated 
for the erection of a two- 
story building, just off the 
university campus, where in 1900 he housed 
the bookshop and publishing office on the 
main floor, sublet the basement for a general 
printing shop and controlled the rental of the 
second floor for university dancing parties. 
Here the first edition of the UNITED STATES 
CATALOG, books in print, 1899 was pub- 
lished. The time had arrived, also, for a 
definite plan to promote the sale of the pub- 
lications. Mr. W. C. Rowell, connected for 
a short period with the book- 
shop in 1898 but at this 
time traveling for a publish- 
ing firm, was induced to carry the CUMULA- 
TIVE Book INDEX as a side line. His 
success encouraged Mr. Wilson to contract 
for his exclusive services in the spring of 1900 
when he started to sell to librarians and book- 
sellers the CUMULATIVE BooK INDEX at - 
$3 a year. He also took orders, for future 
delivery, for the biennial volume of the 
INDEX for 1898-1899 and the UNITED 
STATES CATALOG, books in «print, 1899. 
Mr. Rowell often marvels at the success of 
those early days in selling the new and un- 
tried publications of a new and unknown 
firm. One assumes that it was due, first, to 


United States 
Catalog 


Promotion 
Begins 


10 


PROGRESS 


having for sale an indispensable tool and, 
second, to no small amount of patience, push 
and energy. After covering nearly every 
state in the Union and the most fruitful parts 
of Canada, in 1904 he located in New York 
as eastern representative of the firm. To this 
half decade also belong, first, the beginning 
of the READERS’ GUIDE TO 
PERIODICAL LITERATURE, 
at the start a monthly cumu- 
lated index to twenty periodicals and, second, 
the appearance of a second edition of the 
UNITED STATES CATALOG, which, aside 
from including new material to date, incor- 
porated title and subject entries. 

The foregoing period of The Wilson Com- 
pany's history was wholly experimental. It 
had been trying out a way to supply the *lock 
with a key, the ship with a 
rudder, the binnacle with a 
compass. A trail had to be 
blazed. Tools with which to work and meth- 
ods by which to operate had to be devised. 
‘There was the determination to have the en- 
terprise finance itself, to demonstrate, con- 
trary to precedent, that bibliographical work 
could be made self-supporting. Also there 
was ever the vital consideration of gaining 
the generous confidence of the specialized 
audience to which the appeal was made. By 
dint of sacrifice which most sellers of new 
ideas are called upon to make and by dint 
of the generous service of a loyal editorial 
staff the experiment kad worked enccurag- 
ingly enuf to warrant carrying on. [he time 
now arrived to establish the business upon a 
recognized firm footing. [he 
H.W. Wilson Company, ac- 
cordingly, came into being, 
Was incorporated, and claimed the distinction 
at this time of entering upon really serious 
bibliographical work. This advance in 1903 
was signalized by the purchase of the Cu- 
mulative Index to Periodicals, published 


in Cleveland, its consolidation with the READ- 
mi 


Readers’ 


Guide 


Help from 
Holmes 


Incorporation 
of Company 





. joins the forlorn brotherhood of ‘back vol- 
umes’ than which, so long as they are unindexed, 
nothing can be more exasperating. Who wants a 
lock without a key, a ship without a rudder, a bin- 
nacle without a compass, a check without a signa- 


ture, a greenback without a goldback behind it?’”’— 
Oliver Wendell Holmes 


1] 


ERS’ GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE 
and the selection of Mr. J. B. Doster, who 
had been the publisher of the Cleveland [n- 
dex, as business manager of the publishing 
department. At the same time the READERS’ 
GUIDE was entrusted to Miss Anna Lorraine 
Guthrie who left the position of reference 
librarian at the University of Minnesota to 
undertake the new editorial work. “Two years 
later the Book REviEw DIGEsT was 
launched under the supervision of Miss Clara 
E.. Fanning of Minneapolis. 

Branching out was further signalized by 
the removal of the business into a new three 
story, fire-proof building of 
its own opposite the gateway 
of the University campus. 
‘The initiative and courage which lay back of 
that project were commemorated by the presi- 
dent of a prominent Minneapolis bank before 
the Minnesota Bankers’ Association in 1906 
in the following words: 

“Now there are many examples of won- 
derful initiative in our national life. ‘This is 
the country of initiative and courage. But I 


We 
Build 


don’t want to speak about these great names. 
It seems to me that they are dazzling. I 
would rather speak about those natural and 
simple examples of initiative and courage that 
we can all see around us. 

“T have seen a young man in our neigh- 
berhood build a $28,000 building on a 
$6,000 lot, with only a little over $1,000 
investment. I think that is an example 
of initiative. More than that, he brought it 
to a successful conclusion. Now I passed 
that lot a hundred times without seeing that 
it had any particular value. He bought the 
lot for $3,000, $1,000 down and a mort- 
gage back for $2,000. Then somebody who 
had a particular use for the lot offered him 
$6,000 for it. I said to him ‘You have no 
money to build a building. Sell it and take 
your profit.” But he said, “The lot is worth 
more than that to me.’ Then he organized a 
building corporation, and by means of pre- 
ferred stock which he sold to friends who be- 
lieved in him and knew his plans, by means 
of a mortgage on the completed structure, he 
built and paid for that splendid $28,000 


building. He then moved his business into it, 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


his printing department into the basement, his 
book store and publishing department upon 
the first floor; and the hall renting at $15 a 
night for parties will pay a large part of the 
carrying charge. Now there you have a beau- 
tiful building, of great benefit to the com- 
munity, of undoubted value to the company 
who made the mortgage, a first-class invest- 





to pencil or hand was laid to shovel.” 

At first, two floors only were occupied by 
the Company, the second floor being rented as 
a public hall. The basement housed a re- 
cently acquired printing department while the 
main floor was divided between the book 
shop in front and the business and editorial 
offices in the rear. The editorial offices also 


THE FIRST BUILDING OWNED BY THE COMPANY 


ment for the preferred stockholder, a splendid 
home for the business, and of growing value 
to the common stockholders. As you look at 
that building you might say to me, “That build- 
ing is built of brick and stone,’ but I tell you 
that building is a creation of the mind. You 
might say to me, “That building is built by 
architect and builder,’ but I say to you that 
building is built by initiative. You might say 
to me, “That building is built by capital,’ but 
I say to you that building is built by courage. 
As we look at that splendid structure we for- 
get the men and teams who made the excava- 
tion, we forget the masons who laid the brick 
and stone, we even forget the architect who 
drew the plans; we remember and admire 
that young man who saw that building, a vi- 
sion in his mind before fingers were touched 


12 


at this time made room for a new feature, the 
Cumulative Reference Library, where maga- 
zine articles, pamphlets and reports were col- 
lected, filed by subject and rented or sold to 
readers and debaters who had no regular 
access to the magazines. 

The years 1906-12 saw four new enter- 
prises launched. The first was LIBRARY 
WORK, a quarterly digest of literature de- 
voted to libraries. Through 
an arrangement by which 
Library Journal took over 
this digest and incorporated it into its current 
numbers The Wilson Company discontinued 
it with the publication of a cumulated num- 
ber covering the years 1906-1911. The sec- 
ond step of progress was recorded in the 
beginning of the DEBATERS’ HANDBOOK 


Four New 
Enterprises 


PROGRESS 


Series through the appearance of Selected 
Articles on the “‘Enlargement of the United 
States Navy’ by Clara E. Fanning. To 
Miss Edith M. Phelps, who joined the staff 
in 1907, was entrusted the general editorial 
charge of the series. The third and fourth 
new features, the ECLEcTIC LIBRARY Cata- 
log and the FICTION CATALOG, were started 
after the removal of the publishing depart- 
ment from the rear of the main floor to the 
second floor of the Gateway Building. Gen- 
erous space, light and air developed a men- 
tally and physically sturdy staff who cheer- 
fully, though quite unconsciously, prepared 
the way for the removal of the business to the 
east. 

The H. W. Wilson Company had brought 
to the point of recognized success a publishing 
venture far from the publishing center. There 
was satisfaction in the 
thought. Yet the query con- 
stantly arose in the minds of 
the promoters as to what the additional ad- 
vantage might be if the business should change 
its location to the heart of publishing inter- 
ests. Imagination and practical business in- 
sight combined to favor the move. When the 
moment arrived, therefore, to dispose of the 
book business little time was lost in trans- 
planting the entire institution to the more 
favorable soil of manifold publishing indus- 
tries. [he importance of the move to the 
progress of the business outweighed the ob- 
stacles of transporting twelve carloads of ma- 
chinery and equipment nearly half way across 
the continent, and the difficulty of inducing, 
in some instances, whole families to set up in 
a strange environment their household gods. 
The coming to White Plains in 1913, 
marked, therefore, an im- 
portant milestone in the his- 
tory of the Company. About 
twenty officers, editors, and members of the 
staff came on from Minneapolis, forming the 
nucleus of a new staff to be built up as fast 
as suitable people could be found. 

A concrete building designed for a mam- 
moth garage with space to the amount of 
twenty-six thousand square feet, mainly on the 
ground floor, located at 39 Mamaroneck 
Avenue, White Plains, was transformed, by 


Eastward 


Ho! 


Locate in 


White Plains 


use of glass partitions, into business offices, 
editorial rooms, printing department, bindery, 
Cumulative Reference Library, etc., to house 
the transplanted Company. During the first 
few months not only were the problems inci- 
dent to the interruption of schedules, caused 
by the move, met and solved but two new 
indexes were added to the list of publications, 
—the INDUSTRIAL ARTS 
INDEX and the READERS’ 
GUIDESUPPLEMENT. They 
were a response to the growing need for in- 
dexes to many periodicals not included in the 
READERS’ GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERA- 
TURE, particularly periodicals in special 
fields. ‘Their reception justified the faith of 
the publishers who found the support sufficient 
for the satisfactory development of the service. 
Also at this time, in addition to its own offer- 
ings, [he H. W. Wilson Company became 
publication manager for the INDEX TO 
LEGAL PERIODICALS for the American As- 
sociation of Law Libraries, and the PUBLIC 
AFFAIRS INFORMATION SERVICE, a coop- 
erative venture of legislative libraries and 
others interested in making available the lit- 
erature of public affairs. 

By the year 1914 the interests of the Com- 
pany and the increasing occupancy of new 
bibliographical fields warranted initiating a 
house organ. Therefore, the 
WILSON BULLETIN came 
into being, the first number 
to be followed by others at intervals during 
the year that seemed justified by the activities 
and progress of the business. Ihe BULLETIN 
has reached its second volume. A feature of 
Volume I is a complete index. To the White 
Plains period also belongs the launching of 
the AGRICULTURAL INDEX in response to 
a persistent demand from the Agricultural 
Section of the A.L.A. 

Like all business that starts without prece- 
dent and initiates every step of the way, Ihe 
Wilson Company’s business has been com- 
pelled to be sensitive and 
flexible to the guidance of 
experience. In fact, it owes 
whatever success it has attained to heeding 
experience and then having the courage to 
act upon it as advisedly as possible. A su- 


13 


Two More 


Indexes 


House 
Organ 


With Ear 
to the Ground 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


burban location that seemed desirable when 
the field was studied for the eastern move, 
after a tryout of four years, complicated by 
an exacting landlord, was given up for a more 
favorable one in the heart of upper New 
York. The company wanted its own home, 
and, prior to the move, had looked over every 
available location from 28th Street, Manhat- 





THE WHITE PLAINS BUILDING 


tan, to the city limits of the North Bronx, 
resulting in the purchase of a five story brick 
building at University Avenue and 162nd 
Street into which the entire 
plant was moved in Septem- 
ber, 1917. As the moving 
could be done by truck: loads it took place 
gradually, enabling one department at a time 
to settle without much interruption to the 
regular schedules. Changes in the personnel 
were a natural result of the move, making it 
necessary to build up an adequate staff from 
new material, which was especially difficult 
on account of the mobilization for war and 
the consequent shortage of labor. 

For the next few years the periodical in- 
dexes claimed special earnest attention. The 
service was enlarged and improved thru (1) 
indexing additional periodicals, (2) extend- 
ing the service basis plan of charge and (3) 
furnishing, as part of the current service the 
bound annuals and larger cumulated volumes 
which formerly had been priced separately. 
As a result of a short trip to Europe which 
Mr. Wilson made in 1920 an agreement 
was entered into with Grafton & Company of 
London whereby they were to act as agent 


One More 
Move 


for the Wilson publications in Great Britain, 
and ‘The Wilson Company to act as agent 
for Grafton & Company in the United States. 

In 1922 the STANDARD CATALOG BI- 
MONTHLY was started, to provide for the 
small library a service similar to that made 
available to larger libraries by the BooK RE- 
VIEW DicEsT. Also there was added to the 
publications the REFERENCE 
SHELF, an outgrowth of the 
ABRIDGED D E- 
BATERS’ HAND- 
BOOK SERIES and 
the STUDY OUTLINES SERIES. 
With the removal of both editor- 
tal department and_ business 
management of the PUBLIC 
AFFAIRS INFORMATION SER- 
VICE to the Division of Eco- 
nomics of the New York Pub- 
lic Library, the company was 
able to devote practically all of 
its efforts to its own publications 
which have latterly included, besides the 
current periodicals, an increasing number of 
books. Att the present time eight publications 
are issued periodically; and books on debate, 
library economy and other subjects of interest 
to the library world are published at intervals. 
Recently there has been encouragement of 
manuscripts bearing upon business. Also in 
the past three years the Magazine Depart- 
ment, for the sale and exchange of back 
numbers, has been built up to occupy the 
space of two entire floors. 

The building which the company pur- 
chased in 1917 admirably provides for the. 
departments of the business 
except that the old cramped 
feeling returned recently. To 
relieve it, a two story adjoining building has 
just been purchased to overflow into. Access 
to the upper floors of the main building is by 
elevator and stairway, separated from the 
rest of the building by a fire proof partition. 
A journey from the ground floor to the fifth 
floor going the rounds of each would net the 
visitor a good general idea of the scope of 
the Company’s business, with the following 
impressions and information. 


Reference 


Shelf 


Purchase 
New Building 


14 


PROGRESS 


The shipping department occupies the cen- 
tral space of the lower floor. A thorough- 
going understanding of the 
needs of this department to 
insure economy of time and 
efficiency of results is apparent in the equip- 
ment and its arrangement. The floor also 
provides stock room and storage quarters for 
the type metal held for cumulated volumes of 
the current publications. 

The second floor of the building is already 
taxed to capacity to accomodate the Manu- 


_ facturing Department which 
Manufacturing |,ks after the printing and 


ect binding of The Wilson Com- 
pany publications. Mr. Leon Henry is in 
charge and_ has 
been superintend- 
ent, except for a 
brief interval, 
since 1910. ‘The 
machinery is laid 
out in the order 
of the various pro- 
cesses of work, 
with a view to 
economy of space, 
and efficiency and 
convenience of 
work. 

The printing 
department re- 
quires the services 
of forty skilled 
people besides 
twenty electrically 
driven machines, 
which, for the 
greater part of the year, work under pressure. 
Eight typesetting machines are constantly in 
use. Proofreaders, copyholders and revisers 
are on the alert to do their work promptly 
to avoid press delay. One important step in 
the process of manufacturing, not found in the 
ordinary printing office, is the combining of 
the linotype slugs for the cumulated issues. 
This process necessitates the preservation of 
the slugs for future issues, a considerable 
space for storage and a special staff of work- 
ers trained to do the actual combining. Two 
men devote all of their time to making up 


Shipping 
Room 


pages. Jo insure accuracy the editorial cor- 
rections are handled by one person. 

The press work requires extraordinary care 
since the type is small and, in the case of the 
current bibliographical publications, the lines 
of type have had about twenty-five thousand 
impressions before the printing of the annual 
volume, and over thirty thousand before the 
three-year cumulations. If, during the three- 
year period any entries have been set one or 
two thousandths of an inch higher than the 
standard, these entries will get harder wear 
on the press. The face of the type will be flat- 
tened out and will look like bold face type. 
If entries are a thousandth less than standard 
height they will look gray when printed. 





PRINTING DEPARTMENT 


Every linotype has to be tested twice a day 
to make sure that there is not a variation of 
so much as a thousandth of an inch in the 
height of the lines set. 

The filing of the type so that it may be 
readily reassembled for a cumulative number 
is an arduous matter since for every two hun- 
dred pages of a publication 
approximately thirty - six 
thousand lines of type must 
be cared for. There are about one hundred 
and ten tons of linotype metal in our head- 
quarters card catalog and about one hundred 


Filing 
Linotype 
Entries 


fa 


A QUARTER CENTURY (OF SCUMULATIV Be DIBEIOGRALIin 


tons of paper utilized for this work each 
year. 

A high-speed folding machine is run at a 
maximum capacity to keep pace with the 
presses, some of them automatically fed, and 
a smaller folding machine is utilized for fold- 
ing covers and small sections. In the bindery 
the sections are gathered, sewed or wire 
stapled and the books are trimmed and covy- 
ered. The most serviceable cloth is used, the 
heavy fabric being more difficult to handle 
than the lighter cloth employed for the ordi- 


office occupies one corner nearest the entrance. 
Next to it, along the front of the building, are, 
first, the accounting and bookkeeping offices 
and, second, the Business Department con- 
taining the desks of the vice-president, secre- 
tary and the advertising manager. In addi- 
tion to the officers and heads of departments 
a staff of about twenty people is engaged in 
correspondence, typing, ac- 
counting and _ bookkeeping. 
Dictaphones are used almost 
exclusively in preference to stenography. Ihe 


Business 


Office 





THE BUSINESS OFFICE 


nary book. After binding, the books are put 
in standing presses for twelve hours and then 
inspected before going to the shipping room. 

The third floor, with the exception of one 
corner, is devoted to the Magazine Depart- 
ment. Five thousand square 
feet, extended to include an 
additional five thousand 
square feet in the building recently purchased, 
furnish stacks for increasing stocks of back 
numbers of magazines. The entire time of 
eight people is required for the correspond- 
ence, filing new stock and collating the stock 
sold. 

The remaining corner of this floor is set 
aside for a cafeteria for the employees. Food 
is served at prices that merely cover the cost 
of supplies and service. No charge is made 
for heat, light, or overhead, and all deficits 
are assumed by the Company. 

On the fourth floor is transacted all of the 
business of the Company. The president’s 


Magazine 
Department 


16 


automatic typewriters on this floor are of spe- 
cial interest to visitors. They turn out work 
four times as fast as a nimble typist. [he 
same corner holds an electrically driven ad- 
dressograph by means of which all issues of 
the Wilson publications are addressed for 
mailing. Also on this floor the secretary 
of the company supervises the editorial work 
and printing of handbooks, the WILSON 
BULLETIN and other miscellaneous books. 
The remainder of the space furnishes, in the 
rear, storage room for supplies and the over- 
flow of the other departments; and, in front, 
a combined library and reception room where 
are placed within easy access of visitors 
the Company’s publications. 

The editorial department occupies the fifth 
floor where fifty-five people are employed. A 
separate editorial staff is maintained for each 
publication. At the head of the staff is the 
editor-in-chief who is authority for the selec- 
tion of material to be included in her pub- 


PROGRESS 


lications, and for the classifying, cataloging 
and indexing. She is assisted by the manag- 
ing editor who looks after the division of 
work among the members of 
the staff and who sees the 
publication through the press. 
Nearly one-quarter of the space on the floor 
is given to [he Wilson Company library, 
to the storage of the files of cards for books 
included in the UNITED STATES CATALOG 
SERIES, and to back numbers of periodicals. 


Editorial 


Department 


pass to the editor of the Book Review DI- 
GEST for the information needed by her; 
finally they are considered for the STANDARD 
CATALOG, with the result that all books to 
be included are eventually preserved in the 
library maintained by the Company which is 
available to the employees at all times for 
reading and research. At present, the library 
contains over fifteen thousand volumes ar- 
ranged according to the Dewey Decimal 
Classification. There is a separate library of 





MAGAZINE DEPARTMENT 


Publishers early acquired the habit of for- 
warding copies of their new books as fast 
as they came from the press. The use made 
of review copies is threefold: 
they go first to the editor of 
the CUMULATIVE Book 
INDEX who examines them for data to pre- 
pare a correct entry in the INDEX; next they 


Wilson 
Library 


fiction for the use of employees, from which 
the older books are weeded out from time to 
time and sent to hospitals, prisons and schools. 
The juvenile library has been an important 
feature where are preserved copies of books 
that are included in the CHILDREN’S CATA- 
LOG. 

The more than five hundred periodicals 


17 











A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


received regularly by The H. W. Wilson 
Company for indexing in periodical indexes 
are kept on file until the final large cumula- 
tions are published; for when the. entries 


view of Washington Heights from City Col- 
lege to the Spanish Tower of High Bridge 
which serves both to carry the famous Croton 
Aqueduct and as a foot bridge over the river. 





PRESENT BUILDINGS OF THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 


are combined from the several annuals it is 
often necessary to refer to the articles again 
in order both that, when division of material 
is necessary, correct sub-headings may be 
chosen, and that questions inevitably arising 
may be properly answered. 
On an average, two years 
files need to be preserved in 
addition to the current files, thus necessitating 
a large amount of shelving. A section in the 
center of the room is set aside for tables and 
shelves containing the many reference works, 
dictionaries, encyclopedias, who’s whos, etc. 
that are in constant use by members of the 
editoria! staffs. This would seem to fill the 
space to overflowing but there is still room 
for a tiny rest room for the use of employees. 

The windows of the building command a 


18 


Periodicals 


Held Two Years 


On the opposite bank are the Polo Grounds, 
home of the New York “Giants,’’ and the 
Speedway extending four and one-quarter 
miles along the Harlem River, built for the 
special use of drivers of fast horses but re- 
cently open to motor traffic. Rows of apart- 
ment houses top the cliff across the river, as 
far as the eye can travel, and among them, 
set out by itself, stands the Jumel Mansion, 
once Washington’s Headquarters. 

For physical location the site is an enviable 
one, having none of the disadvantages of con- 
tact with tall buildings that so frequently 
darken business houses in lower New York. 
Light, air, elevation all combine to encourage 
the earnest undertakings and promote the 
loyalties that unite The Wilson Company’s 
staff into rather exceptional solidarity. 


PROGRESS 


CHRONOLOGY, METHODS AND MECHANICS 
BOOK CATALOGS 


T is a far cry from the first number of the 

CUMULATIVE Book INDEX to the Febru- 
ary issue for 1923. The INDEX for Febru- 
ary, 1898, contained in nine pages the list 
of books published in January of that year 
and was divided into two 
parts,—the author and title 
index and the subject index. 
The subject index was. arranged under six- 
teen general headings, giving author and title 
only, with a reference to the author and title 
index for more complete information. The 
inside front cover carried announcements 


GeBaL 
of 1898 


— 


ee ee og 
Beard, Charfes Austiti, 15.4 oe as 
*ross eurrents in BONES sue yo 
a4 ; lectureships on the Guernsey Lente. 
ye atooro. te season of 1922) 


Oe @ ndation : oa kos 
Moore fou as Marshull 22-18520 


278p $2.50 ’22 Jones, 


CBOSS CURRENTS IN EUROPE TODAY. By 
Charies A. Beard, 8vo. $2.50, Bcst.—Marshall 
Jones. Seamer 


SS CURRENTS IN EURGRE TODAY. By | 


Fes A. Bogdan: SV $2,506. Bost.—Marshall 
y Jones (Auztis Ve Bo/ Sm fn Bo 


Beard, Char i 
ross Currents in Europe to-day. 7-+278 

(2 p bibl.) D I ’ 5) fi ee ay. 4 =/O Pp. 
# DP. Di.) 1: [c. 22]. Bost., M. Jones $2.50 
Deals with secret diplomacy and the revelations 
of the past four years, the economic problems, the 
agricultural revolution, the Russian revolution, the 
new constitution, the labor moyement, socialism and 
_ the United States as a world power in this new era. 


CROSS CURRENTS IN EUROPE TODAY. By 
' Charles = 2A; Beard, $2.50. Bost.—Marshali 
Jones. - Jo afm Se Bee 


CROSS CURR ‘i : 
Charles ee EUROPE TODAY, By 


shall Jones. vo. $2.50. Bost,—Mar- 


<= /> a SN 
OSS ae aioe in Lurope today. Beard. Charles 
$2.50 Pp Zw TF arshall Jones 


CROSS CURRENTS IN BHUROPE TODAY. By - 
es 


rarice A. Beard. $2.50. Beg Pastsbal Blan ; 


that the future company was to occupy. The 
February issue of 1923 with its cumulated 
record of books for the previous half year, 
complete in one alphabet, was a volume of 
more than five hundred pages. 

When Miss Potter assumed the editorship, 
in the summer of 1898, the entire arrange- 
ment of the INDEX was changed to the pres- 
ent system of author, title and 
subject entries in one alpha- 
bet. All of the type in the 
first issue was reset and the plan was inaugu- 
rated of cumulating the issues frequently to 


United States 
Catalog 


GF YEE BPs Luclin /&74— 


Cross curre i 
ss currents In KHurone to-day. B 
VE $2.50 Jones, Marshall eo oes oy 


iplomacy 
Beard, ANE 


ai Cr _ Cross currents ic Nurope te- 
Gay. $2.50 122 Jones. Marshall 
5 / Politics and dovernnient 
¥ eard; Co Nh. Créss. currents fy BB 
SPO EAT GS, ISS rrents in Nurope to-d: 
$2.50 °22 jones. Marshall eee ay 


CHOSS CURRENTS IN EUROPE TODAY. 
» By Charles A. Beard. i2me. Ueoston: 
The Marshal Jdfes Timpany 5D. 
Contains the sinetde » §ioht lec- 
tures om contemporary Entrope deliv- 
ered at Dartmouth College in June of 
this year. ies ore 


SPECIMAN CARD SHOWING HOW MATERIAL IS ASSEMBLED FOR THE MAKING OF CUMULATIVE, BOOK INDEX 
ENTRY 


about the forthcoming issues in which a di- 
rectory of the publishers whose books were 
included was promised for the March num- 
ber, and ‘‘an index to recent special bibliog- 
raphies’ for the April number, thus fore- 
casting even at that early date the broad field 


save time of looking for information in several 
numbers. In 1900 appeared the first UNITED 
STATES CATALOG, books in :print 1899, 
which was an author list, with supplementary 
title list, compiled from as many publishers’ 
catalogs as could be brought together. Altho 


19 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


far below the standard of today it was an 
ambitious undertaking, considering the inex- 
perience and lack of financial resources of 
the publishers. However, the defects were so 
obvious that the publishers immediately set 
to work to issue another. The second edition, 
in 1902, contained author, title and subject 
entries in one alphabet and incorporated prac- 
tically all of the features of the UNITED 
STATES CATALOG SERIES as it stands today. 
This edition was followed in 1905 by a 
cumulation covering the years 1902 to 1905 
in one alphabet, and both volumes were kept 
up to date by the monthly and annual cumu- 
lations of the CUMULATIVE Book INDEX. 
Further, as the use of several cumulations 
and annuals suffers all of the inconveniences 
of uncumulated current issues, the publishers 
found it necessary to add to their plan the 
improvement of putting out every ten or fif- 
teen years a new edition of the UNITED 
STATES CATALOG that would be complete 
in one alphabet for all books in print at the 
date of publication. In accordance with this 
advance, the UNITED STATES CATALOG, 
books in print, 1912, was issued and is the 
foundation volume of the present series. 

The editorial work on the large third edi- 
tion of the CATALOG was taken on by the 
CUMULATIVE Book INDEX staff in addi- 
tion to the regular duties. A six-year supple- 
ment came out in 1918, covering 1912-1917 
in one alphabet, edited by Miss Potter with 
the assistance of Miss Emma L. Teich. 
After the publication of the six-year CATA- 
LOG Miss Teich became sole editor of the 
INDEX and Miss Potter gave practically all 
of her time to the INDUSTRIAL ARTs IN- 
DEX. Meanwhile, the current numbers of 
the INDEX passed to the supervision of Miss 
Agnes Van Valkenburgh. Nineteen twenty- 
one marked a second cumulated supplement 
of the CATALOG, covering the years 1918- 
1921, brought out under the joint editorship 
of Miss Eleanor Hawkins and Miss Estella 
E. Painter. The new cumulated volume 
ended with the June issue, in conformity with 
a new plan whereby the annual cumulations 
were to be published in June of each year 
rather than in January, as formerly. Better 
service was thereby insured, as the large 


20 


bound volumes could be published during the 
summer months when necessary delay would 
mean less inconvenience to subscribers than 
would be the case at the holiday season. 
This volume was also the first large supple- 
ment to be put out on the new subscription 
plan, whereby annual cumulations and cumu- 
lated supplements are furnished to the sub- 
scriber as part of his yearly service, without 
additional charge. A new fourth edition of 
the CATALOG, complete for books in print 
to date of issue, is in view for 1927, with 
cumulated supplements at intervals of three 
years, each supplement appearing in place of 
the annual volume for the year of publica- 
tion. 

As a basis for compiling the CUMULA- 
TIVE Book INDEX, information about the 
new books is secured from every possible 
source. First are the books 
themselves which most pub- 
lishers furnish hot from the 
press. Next in value are the publishers’ cata- 
logs and announcements. These are supple- 
mented by lists of books in trade and literary 
journals, and proof sheets of the L.C. cards. 
The material is cut and filed in boxes under 
authors’ names where it remains until a new 
issue of the INDEX is to be compiled. Then 
it is taken out and sorted. All clippings and 
data for one book are fastened to a four-by- 
six card which bears the author and title of 
the book in the upper left-hand corner. In- 
formation received later is compared with 
what is already on the card and filed or dis- 
carded according to need. Often it is neces- 
sary to write to the publishers to obtain fur- 
ther information or to reconcile conflicting bits 
of information already at hand. The head- 
ings under which the book is to be listed in 
the INDEX are also written on this card, and 
copy is written from it and compared with it 
after being written to be sure that no errors 
have occurred. The company now has in its 
files a card record of this kind for every 
book that has been cataloged in the CUMU- 
LATIVE. Book INDEX since the first UNITED 
STATES CATALOG was published. The cu- 
mulated files contain over two hundred 
thousand cards and occupy the entire rear 
wall of the editorial office. 


Compiling 
the C. B. I. 


PROGRESS 


The Book REviEwW DIGEsT was launched 
in 1905 in response to a demand from li- 
brarians for some method of evaluating new 
books. The DIGEST under- 
took to meet the need by 
listing monthly the leading 
new books, giving each an impartial descrip- 
tive note together with excerpts from critical 
reviews of books taken from various sources 
and representing many points of view, both 
favorable and unfavorable. Miss Clara E. 
Fanning took editorial charge of the DIGEST 
while Mrs. Wilson gave her personal services 
during a period of seven years and contributed 
the descriptive notes. Later the writing of the 
descriptive notes was continued by Miss Mary 
K. Reely who, in 1917, became editor. 

The Book REviEWw DIGEST now pro- 
vides monthly both descriptive and evalua- 
tive information for 
about _ twenty-five 
hundred books a 
year. While prac- 
tically no changes 
have been made in 
the origmal plan of 
publication, except 
that the annual 
cumulations are is- 
sued in February 
instead of in De- 
cember as formerly, 
several improvements have been added. A 
title and subject index is a feature which is 
cumulated fully in each issue and refers the 
user to the author index. The L.C. number 
is included. The Dewey Classification num- 
bers also are supplied. 

The working material necessary for com- 
piling the DIGEsT includes two copies each 
of about sixty journals containing book re- 
views, and editorial copies of the new books 
forwarded by the publishers. As the maga- 
zines reach the office they go to the filing table 
where alternate pages are blue penciled to in- 
sure, for each column of a review, a back and 
a face; where the reviews are marked to indi- 
cate the source, date of publication, volume 
number, and paging; and where the reviews, 
so marked, are filed in boxes by the authors’ 
For every book selected for the DI- 


Book 


Evaluation 


names. 


21 


GEST a folder is prepared bearing the author 
and title on a projecting tab. The reviews 
are pasted on this folder and the number of 
words in each is estimated and indicated be- 
low the clippings. Then the folders go to 
the editor who reads the reviews and selects 
the excerpts to be quoted, enclosing them in 
brackets for the typist to copy. She also 
marks the reviews with plus or minus signs 
to indicate favorable or adverse criticism. 
After the excerpts have been written the 
card is turned over to the review editor for 
the preparation of the descriptive note. These 
notes are written from examination of the 
books themselves, if review copies have 
reached the editor's desk; otherwise, a de- 
scriptive note is written from a number of au- 
thoritative reviews. Additional reviews of 


the book, received after the book has been 





ASSEMBLED DATA FOR INDEX ENTRIES 


entered in the DIGEST, are also pasted on 
the folder if valuable and further excerpts 
are made and included in the next cumulated 
issue of the DicEstT. A six-months’ cumula- 
tion is issued in August and a bound annual 
in February. The annual volume for 1921 
contained a five-year cumulation of the author 


_and title index for the years 1917 to 192] 


inclusive. 

For a number of years Mr. Wilson had 
cherished the idea of publishing a standard 
catalog which should include ten thousand 
books most suitable for purchase by the aver- 
age public library. The first step toward the 
realization of this ideal was the publication 
of the CHILDREN’S CATALOG in 1909. 
Then followed the fiction catalogs, published 
in editions of one thousand and two thousand 
titles of handbook size, bound in paper, for 








wedding 


oo dever 


“there 
the miiuoderer. 


QUAR GEERT GEN TUR Or CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


DUTTON. CHARLES JUDSON. shadow Or te 
glass. 26ip $1.75 Dodd 


yniflionnive and collector of rare 


Frank Rice, 
on his’ 


hooks, is found murdered in his Serary 
davehter's wedding day. There are lwo arti- 
cles missing whieh point to two possible telip= 


derers; & mahognuy box Containing S5H90 in goled 
pieces has (isappearcd trom the wedding prer-. 
enis, and a rare aid beok worth ee 000 has been 
Yaken from the sate. A nephew who has) 
threatened to give them all a shock on the 
day, disappears, and it is suspected 
that he teok the gold and murdered his uncle. 
Bul suspicion also rests on Janes Kent, collec- 
tor of rare heaks, Who has been secn to make a 
Hasty exit rom {he Eee mansion on the night: 
of the murder, When these suspects are clenred. 
remains absolutely go apparent clue tol 
With rare patience John. Bartley.” 
a famous detective. finds a clue and {he mur= 
is apprehended, : 


int Bk R pas ee Tali: 
“The book docs vot belong to that best type 
cof deteetive story in which the resulls are 0 


BES 


fained hy close rensaning, and its machinery eo 


“at times a fittle too evident, but jt is enter-: 
Staining. ingenious dnd awifl moving.” ee 
+ 4+ —N ¥ Times pig Ja 2b 23 Sou | ae 


fsahul Paterson 
Tribune p23 Ja 28 28 


_ Sprinaftd Republican pia Ja 28 


lkeviewed hy 
N ¥ 


Li 


rere 


PreTion 
YWistery Stories 
H 


ma ious 
wih or : 


28-P445 


23 280 


_ pould the 


Boo ari 
Te 


™~ : ee 





. York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 





another mysterious murder. On ihe ¢ ew “au of his a dacher a 
wedding day, Frank Rice is foun radgon ihe floor of a little stud) 


off the library c 
- His sk 


foun he floor beside the body. 


een brgu 


CHR SRADOW ON THE £ 
igh f ae Pution. seen 


ees the deve 


be eg AO 
“app iy * The Murders in the 


pi,” the method of having 
el ir fold by a f be de-. 
tive, areatour PY SsCional, has: 
eon a favorit Santhore of erime 
stories, It must e adenitted that Pelt,’ 
John ariley's great triend, whe 
relates ibsir adventares in the affair. 
af “The Shadow on the Glass,” ! 
wakes Our old friend Dr. Watson 
Seta hy contrast an aingsinely per 
peicecisus Individual. idowever, his 
wieesicy dhe littie ar nething te ju- 
gre one's interest in the twiste and 
false Glues of this account of a mys- 
tesious ssurdor. << 
Tue poenc is laid et Watch En, 
where Prenk Hive, & collector of rure 
bach! and Bartiey’ s intimais fiend, 
ad kin beautiful country home. 
Pelt and Bartley had come down for 
the wedding of Rice’s onlv daugtiter, ; 
Faith, and were staying ot the hotel. | 
But ca the morning of the very day 
ihe marriage was to take place came 
the news that Frank Hice fae been 







brutally murdered in his own itbrary. 
A‘fhat Porery was at the ten of the 
house, aud tiere was no way of feav~) 


ine if Sxoept through a door witch | 
wes found locked On the matde, the 
ayindews heing ‘a0 Yar above fhe 


ground for descent from them te be 


possiixe. Ths weddise presents; | 
mony of them valuable, had been 
piaeed in the library, and there were 
tua detectives on guard. How then 






murdcreshave escaped mn-. 
7 be ee nei lelons te that 


Soc of detective wed fa which 
ASS Are t Dy olase rene 
iRiaery is at lignes 


the « 
goning, and ths% 
a Rete beguent, hut it is enter. 


and Pps) 
& Uh oe exzott 

’ Ft hes ier her ie 

ay } woes ang agpercotiy i6t unre- 

vied, which in 2 wily, a5 Wie an-. 

thers style ss nese tty sinipid an’ 

GiEeet, 





Heé SHADOW ON THE Grass. By/ Charles 4. Duttone 
$1. pe 


prev the Shadow on the Glass” Chait ce ert uiton, 


top floor of his sumimer home 2Qgv a 
has bYen erusht, and the sveapgn, QOReay eane, 


five thousand dollars in gold is missing froin the — and : 

‘rare and valuable book from the s 
"Phe detective who undertakes to unravel the mystery is Joy 

- Bartley, who has appeared in other books by Al. Dutton. 
_are plenty of clues for him to work on, but Bartley is convinced the 


the one important “lea heen ov ge 


_And it is ggelye that ¥ 
quite car SHY the story, tho agen 


into the seeret. — 


ards, 


oh 
a ih 





lS on 
i investiga ‘ 


ney 



























apeneercisee Se co 


251 pages. 


rl 5 o : - 





A nee eany box ee : 


Ther 


eo and so it pore _. 
fe reader! Ae aitGAtion 
a wagitas et him 


1a 
Bd : : : . 
if solotion ot tae myetery 
Shudow on the Glass'yis so Ae 
ke dowatek: exasperating when it ¢o 
it ts aanctisned as well Jeined hy the 
_ignest enthorilies. a. ' mind Pee’ 
HPerloined Letter” gyhich wes concealed b 
“Teaying ic in giain sight; and Chesterton’s 
musdor = ee tele, where the killing we 
gone b nH whem everyone we ape there- 
forex Doe phone ctc dpe al the a ota 
abs bev dudn’t (RG& Be war 
_guibier, ejthar:Pifer just didn’t think oe ‘bi 
giall ith these two plain hints, see if ¥ 
cat guess Viko kifled Prank Rice. YH be 
you san’ ‘ry apd if you de, fo ¢ on and gor 


















eG 
Teer. Tes 5 es 


Sor 


pres EL OEE: : 
GMS ah. Cereb, = stairs, io the upper 
GhaRLe 


a i ge SS _ Tieutie the — of . 
es ghee. at : 


Soa oo ¥8 









Den of the pectie wh - Sgitred ia 
"The Underwood teystery,” Fohn Bart. : 
- eriminul investiga? Ge his as 

igtant, Felt,” rang fl hayes J. 
Aue West detéctive storm “The 












Shadow on the p@irss,y (Dodd, co 
& Co, New YVoaRRY $1.78). wegen 
opens at ih@.Coean Watch S 
HN, but, ofsts uuick oe we cottage, . 


Bo-ce ile So scasice oh are apt 

to be, tran} ob, wealthy hiblio- 

phile, Aho is @eeking murdered tn his 

library on tk&Sourth flodr. Detectives 

guarding Wediling presents mi the 

house Gla ved no one had used the © 

elevatot } piter a certain hour, anid the - 

eeyator was the only means of access 

to the top Goor, oe : 
The murdercr could hot have ee. ~ 

vaped by the windows, and the tibrarsy 

door Wes docked: : Missing Were ~ $30,- 

80G rare book and. a box af gold can. 

taining $5000. Ciccumstantial evidence 

pointed to & neighber wea had failed 

to pet thet baok, and whose cann was 

ihe weapon used in the crime, But : 

equally did circumstantial evidence 


point to 4 nephew, inmate of the ae 
home, who disappeared nex, orning ey ¢ 
atier threatening io jel wedding : i 


of his copsin schedul ropoons : : 4 
. As in the Under d ease, the — ee 
anther “leverly pro an automatic : 
“pit of evidence, a: eine frick, some i 


would call it, Sahtch fixes the crime A 








4 upon a hita uspected pesscn in. |. 
Soe niost reraay, hion, pees pee : 
Gente bene ra | be ain 8 


SPECIMEN CARD SHOWING HOW MATERIAL IS ASSEMBLED FOR THE MAKING OF A BOOK REVIEW DIGEST 


ENTRY 


22 


PROGRESS 


general use. [hey were sold to libraries in 
quantities, to be distributed in place of the 
library's own printed catalog. On the re- 
moval of the Company to White Plains this 
venture was further advanced by the acquisi- 
tion of an editor, Miss Corinne Bacon, who 
had been director of the Drexel Library 
School, at that time recently discontinued. 
The present edition of the CHILDREN’S 
CATALOG was published in 1916 in three 
sizes of one thousand, two thousand and 
three thousand five hundred titles, respectively. 
In the following year sections of the CATA- 
LOG were published for Sociology and Biog- 
raphy. Work is at present under way on a 
new edition of the FICTION CATALOG. Also, 
new editions of the CHILDREN’S CATALOG 
and revisions of the sections on Sociology and 
Biography are to follow. Owing to outside 
duties Miss Bacon has relinquished all of her 
editorial work except the selection of titles 
and notes. The general management has 
passed to Miss Mertice James. 

The latest development of the STANDARD 
CATALOG SERIES is the STANDARD CATA- 
LOG BIMONTHLY which aims to do for the 
small library what the Book REvIEw DI- 
GEST has done for the large library. It is 
issued six times a year, each number contain- 


ing about fifty books suitab!e for purchase 
by the small library, all of the books even- 
tually to be included in the final edition of 
the STANDARD CATALOG. 


‘ Standard 
The selection of the books Catalog 
is done cooperatively thru Bi-monthly 


the voluntary assistance of library com- 
missions and other library workers.  !he 
books are selected from the BooK REVIEW 
DIGEST and the full entries are repeated, 
with the difference that the books are ar- 
ranged under classes according to the Dewey 
Decimal Classification. 

The foregoing catalogs aptly illustrate the 
Wilson ideal of cooperation in bibliographical 
publishing. Formerly, in ventures of the kind, 
libraries contributed directly both to the edi- 
torial work and toward the expenses of pub- 
lishing, with the result that much of the work 
was contributed without remuneration and 
that financial support was uncertain and bore 
much more heavily upon some libraries than 
upon others. By the Wilson plan the benefit 
is secured of the expert knowledge available 
in the libraries, and the publication and financ- 
ing of the product is done by one central 
agency. Libraries render their share of aid 
toward financial support by subscription in 
proportion to the amount of the service used. 


PERIODICAL INDEXES 


ARLIER in this brief history, mention 

has been made that the READERS’ 
GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE began 
with mdexing twenty periodicals under the 
direction of Miss Potter in the intervals of 
compiling the CUMULATIVE Book INDEX; 
also that in 1903 the Cleveland Index was 
combined with it and Miss Guthrie was se- 
cured as editor. In 1905 the first five-year 
cumulation of the GUIDE was published, and 
sixty-two periodicals were indexed for 1900- 
1904, in one alphabet, the indexing where 
necessary being carried to the beginning of 
the five-year period. 

The growth of the READERS’ GUIDE 
made the index increasingly valuable to the 
larger libraries; but every necessary advance 
in cost brought complaints from the small li- 


23 


braries which did not need and could not 
afford so extensive an index. In 1903 
the plan was tried of making an abridgement 
of the GUIDE which would index twenty of 
the periodicals most suitable for the use of 
schools and small public li- 


Apne . Eclectic 
braries. This was the Library 
ECEECTIGHIEIBRARY |‘ GAT= Catalog 


ALOG. It continued for four years, with 
an annual cumulation at the close of the year; 
and in 1912 the more appropriate name, 
READERS’ GUIDE ABRIDGED, was adopted. 
At the close of 1912 the service was discon- 
tinued as it proved more practicable to furnish 
the small library with the quarterly issues of 
the READERS’ GUIDE. This practice was in 
turn superseded by the service basis plan of 
subscription which made it possible for the 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


small library to secure the full indexing at a 
price within its power to pay. 

In 1910, Miss Guthrie, temporarily re- 
lieved of the editing of the current numbers 
of the GUIDE by Miss Edna Bullock, pre- 
pared the second five-year cumulation of the 
READERS’ GUIDE. By this time the list of 
periodicals had grown to one hundred, all 
of which were indexed for 1905-1909; and, 
in the same alphabet, were included also sub- 
ject references to four hundred and thirty 
composite books of the kind included previ- 
ously in the A.L.A. Index to General Litera- 
ture. 

The necessity for imdexes to periodicals 
had grown sufficiently to warrant extending 
the service to cover periodicals in special 

fields. For some years there 
Readers’ Guide had been a demand for the 
indexing of periodicals of 
the kind formerly included 
in Poole’s Index; but to increase the list of 
periodicals indexed in the GUIDE was not 
practicable. [To meet the need, in 1913, 
Miss Guthrie added to her responsibilities 
the editing of a new publication, the READ- 
ERS’ GUIDE SUPPLEMENT, which was de- 
voted to periodicals in the fields of pure 
science and the humanities. About sixty-five 
journals were included the first year, and the 
SUPPLEMENT was issued bimonthly, omit- 
ting one summer issue, with a bound annual 
volume in January. 

After moving to White Plains the list of 
periodicals indexed in the SUPPLEMENT was 
increased considerably and editorial assistance 
was necessary. Miss Marion A. Knight who 
had been connected with the Pittsburgh Pub- 
lic Library joined the Wilson staff in 1913 
in the capacity of indexer, and the following 
year, when Miss Guthrie resigned, became 
editor. 

In 1916, it was decided to issue a cumu- 
lated edition of the READERS’ GUIDE SuP- 
PLEMENT to date, and, as Poole’s Index 
had discontinued publication with the volume 
for 1902-1906, the indexing of the periodi- 
cals included in the SUPPLEMENT was car- 
ried back to the beginning of 1907, making 
the first cumulation a nine-year volume, for 


the years 1907-1915. Another cumulated 
24 


Supplement 


volume of the READERS’ GUIDE SUPPLE- 
MENT was published, covering the years 
1915-1918 in one alphabet. In 1919, there 
was added to the READERS’ GUIDE SUP- 
PLEMENT the feature of indexing the serials 
formerly indexed on cards by the American 
Library Association. ‘The indexing of the 
serials was done by several cooperating li- 
braries and the resulting product was ar- 
ranged and forwarded to [he Wilson Com- 
pany by Mr. William S. Merrill of The 
Newberry Library. This change was fol- 
lowed closely by the publication of a second 
cumulation of the READERS’ GUIDE SUP- 
PLEMENT, for 1916-1919. Some changes 
in personnel occurred at this time which lost 
to the staff Miss Knight and gained Miss 
Elizabeth Sherwood, formerly indexer for the 
New York Public Library. 

During these few years the service given 
by the periodical indexes had been gradu- 
ally improved and extended by the furnishing 
of all bound annuals and 


larger cumulated volumes as Supplement 
. Becomes 
part of the scurrent “service; guryspaee ema 


and by improving the service 

basis plan of charge. It was found possible 
also, to the satisfaction of many librarians, 
to add to the SUPPLEMENT more of the 
foreign periodicals such as were in the list 
proposed for Professor Teggert’s suggested 
Index to the Humanities which failed of pub- 
lication because of the lack of needed finan- 
cial support. In order to be more in keeping 
with its enlarged scope the name of the SUP- 
PLEMENT was changed in 1921 to the 
INTERNATIONAL INDEX TO PERIODICALS, 
and Miss Lucie Wallace, formerly librarian 
for the Interchurch World Movement, was 
secured as editor. Separate staffs for the 
READERS’ GUIDE and the INTERNATIONAL 
INDEX were made necessary by the enlarge- 
ment of the INDEX. 

Another cumulated volume of the READ- 
ERS’ GUIDE was published in 1921, for 
1919-1921, and in accordance with the new 
plan was sent to all subscribers, in place of 
the annual cumulation for 1921, without 
charge. Beginning with 1923 the INTER- 
NATIONAL INDEX was again enlarged to 
cover over eighty additional periodicals, many 


PROGRESS 


of them in foreign languages, thus bringing 
the total number of periodicals indexed in 
the SUPPLEMENT to nearly two hundred and 
fifty. 

Along with the READERS’ GUIDE SUP- 
PLEMENT, the INDUSTRIAL ARTS INDEX 
was begun in 1913 for the purpose of index- 

ing periodicals in the special 
Technical and fields of chemistry, engineer- 
Business Aid ing and industry. The first 

issues contained subject en- 
tries to sixty-seven periodicals only, and 
publication occurred five times a year, with 
an annual cumulation in December. ‘The list 


For the first few years current and annual 
service only had been provided but in 1920 
upon the affirmative vote of the subscribing li- 
braries, it was decided that a two-year cumu- 
lation should hereafter take the place of an 
annual volume in alternate years. [wo of the 
two-year cumulations have now been pub- 
lished, 1918-1919 and 1920-1921. In 
1920, in response to an urgent request from 
various subscribers, a number of business 
periodicals were added to the list of maga- 
zines indexed. Other new features adopted 
at this time, including a list of technical so- 
cleties with name of secretaries, dates of con- 





EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT 
The Book Review Digest Corner—Review copies of the month’s books on the left. 


of periodicals indexed grew rapidly, however, 
and from being mothered by Miss Potter in 
the intervals of compiling the UNITED 
STATES CATALOG, the INDUSTRIAL ARTS 
INDEX came to claim an editorial staff of its 
own. Miss Potter gave up her other duties 
to become its editor-in-chief, and Miss Louise 
Teich was appointed managing editor. Fre- 
quency of publication was soon changed from 
five to ten times a year. 


ventions, etc., and a monthly list of new 
technical and business books and pamphlets, 
have met with warm appreciation. The book 
titles are, after their first printing, incorpor- 
ated in the main alphabet with the periodical 
references, and in 1922 reached the number 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. 
The INDUSTRIAL ARTS INDEX now pro- 
vides subject entries for about one hundred 
and fifty periodicals and is used extensively 


25¢ 


A QUARTER: CENTURY OFS CUMUMILEAT IV PS BIBEIOGIWAR Tia 


in business libraries as well as in the public 
and college library. 

In 1916 the periodical indexing service 
was extended to another field, and the AGRI- 
CULTURAL INDEX was begun at the earnest 
solicitation of the Agricul- 
tural Section of the A.L.A. 
Mrs. Neltje Shimer, who 
had been associated with the Company since 
1902, undertook the editorship with the ad- 
vice and cooperation of a committee appointed 
for the purpose by Mr. Malcolm Wyer, 
president of the Agricultural Section. To 
the members of this committee, Mr. Charles 
R. Green of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, Mr. William M. Hepburn of Pur- 
due University, and Mrs. Ida A. Kidder of 
Oregon Agricultural College, much credit is 
due for suggestions and encouragement. Miss 
Claribel Barnett and Miss E. Lucy Ogden 
of the Department of Agriculture, and Mr. 
George A. Deveneau of the Illinois Agricul- 
tural College Library, also gave generous 
help and advice. 

The first annual cumulation, published 
early in 1917, included sixty-two agricultural 
periodicals besides a large number of gov- 
ernment documents and reports. At first five 
issues were published yearly, one of them a 
bound annual cumulation in January; but, 
after an experimental period publication was 
increased to ten issues yearly and the plan 
was adopted of cumulating fully every three 
years. Meanwhile the list of periodicals in- 
dexed was enlarged and was extended to 
government and state documents and reports 
for the United States and some foreign coun- 
tries; also the reports of agricultural experi- 
ment stations and extension divisions were 
listed. Good material, issued occasionally by 
banks, railroads, and industrial concerns serv- 
ing agricultural interests, was added also as 
“occasional literature’ and a finding list for 
this literature was included in each issue of 
the INDEX. The editorial pages often carried 
reviews of books on agricultural subjects as 
well as useful notes of interest to workers in 
the field which were contributed by Miss 
Barnett of the Department of Agriculture. 
Two three-year cumulations have been pub- 


lished, for the years 1916-1918 and 1919- 


Agricultural 
Index 


26 


1921, and the monthly service now records 
entries for about one hundred and twenty- 
five periodicals, in addition to the depart- 
mental and occasional literature. 

In order that correct headings may be as- 
signed, copies of all the periodicals to be 
indexed are received regularly from the pub- 
lishers. ‘The initial work is 
done by the editor who goes 
over every article in the peri- 
odicals to be indexed, carefully indicating the 
headings under which entries are to be made, 
also the cross references, if any. When, as 
sometimes happens, the title conveys no idea 
of the subject of the article a brief addition 
is made to the title in order to convey such 
information. Almost every month articles on 
entirely new subjects are published, and con-. 
stant study in every department of knowledge 
is essential in order to select subject headings | 
that will facilitate quick use. 

The headings to be made are written in 
the copies of the periodicals beside the titles 
of the articles, then the copy from the periodi- 
cals is typewritten on strips of copy paper 
which are later cut up into slips the size of 
the regular card catalog. [he written copy is 
carefully compared with the periodical, after 
which each periodical with its written copy 
is sent back to the editor for revision. Next 
the copy is cut and alphabeted, subject head- 
ings previously used are scratched off so as 
not to be reset by the printer, full names of 
authors are locked up and the copy, in its 
final form, is sent to the printer. 

When o.k. proof is received, it is cut and 
each entry is pasted on its original copy slip, 
thus providing a card catalog of all the lino- 
type slugs in the printing department. When — 
a number is to be cumulated the slips are filed 
alphabetically with all slips of the preceding 
months to be covered in the cumulation. The 
linotype slugs are then combined in the print- 
ing department and proof is pulled and cor- 
rected by the card catalog in order to see that 
every line of type is in its right place. Next, 
revisions and corrections are made, set up, in- 
terpolated and proofread. Corrections com- 
plete, the forms are made up and a press 
proof of each form is sent to the editorial de- 
partment for last reading. 


Indexing 
Processes 


PROGRESS 


It is perhaps difficult for those who are 
not familiar with the details of these exacting 
processes to understand fully the necessity for 
accuracy and skill. That the work can be 
accomplished as successfully as it is, is due 
not only to careful training but to the high 
grade of ability and length of service of those 
employed. 

The business of furnishing libraries with 
periodical indexes created the desire among 
smaller libraries for access to magazines not 


subscribed for. In 1906 the 


Sean CUMULATIVE REFERENCE 
abeee LIBRARY was_ established 


where articles from periodi- 
cals, reports, pamphlets and documents were 
collected, filed by subject and rented or sold 
for debate or club use. A few years later a 
department was added for the sale or ex- 
change of back numbers of periodicals, and, 
early in 1912, a magazine subscription 
business was established on a small scale for 
the purpose of supplying libraries with current 
subscriptions. This feature of the company’s 
activities was enlarged after the removal to 
White Plains and reached its maximum de- 
velopment in the years 1914-1916. One of 
its achievements was the publishing of a se- 
lected list of periodicals, giving a brief de- 
scription and collation of the periodicals 


“| 
AE LED-SEALTES—? 
Tncoms taxation and tax-exempt securitios. 
F. Franklin, Ind 110:17-18 Ja 6 '23 


Income taxation and tax-exempt securities. 
FE. Franktin, Ind 11:17-18 Ja 6 ’28 


READERS’ GUIDE CARD AFTER PROOF OF PRINTED 
ENTRY HAS BEEN PASTED 


indexed in the READERS’ GUIDE with a few 
others subscribed for by the average library. 
In 1918 the department was disposed of to 
Herman Goldberger of Boston in order that 
the activities of the Business Office might be 
concentrated wholly on the sale of the regular 
publications. 

In 1915 the Magazine Department, sup- 
plying back numbers by sale or exchange, was 
brought from Minneapolis to White Plains 


14) 


and has since been enlarged to become one 
of the important features of the business. 
The fact that the Company had begun to issue 
the INDUSTRIAL ARTS INDEX led to a stock 
of technical periodicals; also at this time, 
Munn & Company, the publishers of the 
Scientific American and Supplement, moved 
into new quarters, and, be- 
ing unable to accommodate 
their stock of back numbers 
of the Supplement, sold them to the Maga- 
zine Department which has since handled the 
sale of back numbers not only for Munn & 
Company but also for a number of other pub- 
lishers without the facilities for handling them. 
The pubtishers’ stock of back numbers has 
since been purchased for Country Life in 
America, World’s Work, American Homes 
and Gardens, Living Age, Garden Magazine, 
Scientific American and Supplement, M achin- 
ery, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, 
and the stock and good-will has been secured 
of both the International Magazine Company 
of Elizabeth, N.J. and Castellanos of Jer- 
sey City. To house this enlarged stock it was 
necessary to lease the second floor of the ad- 
joming building which has since been pur- 
chased. Seventy per cent of the stock now 
consists of scientific and technical periodicals; 
the balance, general and literary. [wo cata- 
logs are issued at intervals, one for the gen- 
eral periodicals and the other for the technical 
stock. The latest edition of the TECHNICAL 
CATALOG contains twenty-four pages. 
After the Cumulative Reference Library 
had been maintained for a few years for the 
rent or sale of articles from periodicals and 
other current reference material, the name 
was changed to the Wilson Package Library, 
as. more descriptive. When the company 
moved to White Plains this department was 
divided, the main part remaining in Minne- 
apolis to serve the Western section of the 
United States. The territory from the Ohio 


Service of 
Magazine 
Department 


River. East was cared for by Reference 
the White Plains branch. By pap 

AN ; Library 
1917 the publishing business Discontinued 


had advanced to a point that made it desirable 
to dispense with some of the minor activities. 


The Minneapolis branch of the Package Li- 
brary was therefore sold, part to the Min- 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


neapolis Public Library and part to the 
Minnesota Public Library Commission. Some 
time later the White Plains branch was also 
disposed of, to the Pennsylvania Library 
Commission. The Wilson Company thereby 
practically ended its reference service. At 
present requested articles are sold outright, 
where available, and research work is done 
at the rate of $1 an hour. 

The close relation of The Wilson Com- 
pany with the University of Minnesota af- 
forded first-hand study of the actual use made 
of the READERS’ GUIDE 
and other helps published by 
the Company. This observa- 
tion and check-up in the first instance led to the 
undertaking of compiling handbooks for de- 


Debaters’ 
Handbooks 


contained good material on the question. So 
came about the first number of the DEBAT- 
ERS’ HANDBOOK SERIES Selected Articles 
on Capital Punishment.’’ The first volume 
contained only reprints of articles on the 
question, but gradually other useful features 
were added to the series. A bibliography was 
included ; then both the reprints and the biliog- 
graphy were classified as general, affimative 
and negative. Briefs were added. An intro- 
duction became a feature which was a short 
resume of the history and existing status of 
the question. Tables and charts were intro- 
duced when they seemed valuable to the 
compilation. 

Increasing use for reference by debaters 
and students led to the extension of the series. 





EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT 


bate. For, one day when a debate was in 
progress at the University it came to the 
attention of the Reference Library that a 
bound volume of one periodical was in danger 
of being worn out at a certain point while the 
rest of the volume remained fresh and new. 
On investigation it developed that debaters 
in large numbers were consulting this volume 
for one article only. To save further wear 
and tear on the volume the article was re- 
printed and distributed. Then the question 
was raised, ““Why not collect several good 
articles on this subject and reprint them>?”’ 
Accordingly, the next year, a pamphlet was 
issued on the subject for annual debate which 


The HANDBOOK SERIES, dating from this 
time also, offered similar aid on_ sub- 
jects not directly debatable. ‘—The DEBATERS’ 
HANDBOOK SERIES and the HANDBOOK 
SERIES will eventually be consolidated un- 
der one general heading, as 
all new titles and editions are 
being brought out under the 
HANDBOOK SERIES. Volumes devoted to 
debate subjects differ from the others only in 
that briefs are provided and the material is 
classified as general, affirmative and negative. 
One of the volumes in the HANDBOOK 
SERIES is a text book on the art of debating. 

In 1916 was issued the first of the 


Handbook 


Series 


233 


PROGRESS 


UNIVERSITY DEBATERS’ ANNUALS which 
contained reports of several of the leading 
intercollegiate debates of the 


University : 
Debaters’ year, with briefs and_bib- 
Annuals liographies. An effort is 
made, in_ selecting the debates to be 


included, to choose subjects on which ma- 
terial will be useful another year and to in- 
clude one debate on each subject accom- 
panied by briefs and selected bibliographies. 
Further, calls were often received for material 
on subjects for which the demand was tem- 
porary, or on which not much material was 
available. This was met by the publications 


of the ABRIDGED HAND- 
aaa, BOOK SERIES, a series of 
ete ha pamphlets containing a few 


good articles on the subject, 
with briefs and references. Not many titles 
were issued in this series because of the dif- 
ficulties of marketing the pamphlets satisfac- 
torily. 

Continued demand for the foregoing ma- 
terial brought about a new publication, the 
REFERENCE SHELF, which was designed 
to take the place of the ABRIDGED DEBAT- 
ERS’ HANDBOOKS and also of the STUDY 
OUTLINE SERIES. By marketing the REF- 
ERENCE SHELF as a periodical, many dif- 
ficulties encountered in the sale of small pam- 


20 


phlets are obviated. Each issue is an 
abridged handbook or a study outline on one 
subject; and by issuing the numbers as 
needed, rather than according to any definite 
schedule, material on a given 
subject can be met at the 
height of demand. Sub- 
scription is by the volume of ten numbers 
each; but the separate issues may be pur- 
chased also either singly or in quantity for 
use in debate or study classes. Eight num- 
bers of Volume I have already been pub- 
lished and the response to the new venture 
has been most encouraging. 

Another recent development is the publish- 
ing of books on business subjects. This de- 
parture dates from the publication of “‘1600 
BusINnEss Books,” later brought out in a 
new and revised edition under the title “2400 
BusINEss Books.”’ The work was edited 
by the Business Branch of the Newark Pub- 
lic Library. A book on house organs and 
others on personnel management have fol- 
lowed, the latter belonging to a new series, 
the MODERN EXECUTIVE’s LIBRARY, which 
is under the general editorship of Daniel 
Bloomfield of the firm of Bloomfield and 
Bloomfield of Boston. Six titles have al- 
ready been published and others are in prep- 
aration. 


Reference 


Shelf 


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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL METHODS 


THE CUMULATIVE PLAN 


NE may visualize the cumulative plan 
only by visualizing the method thru 
which the cumulating is done. The unit with 
which we work in the cumulated printed 
catalog is the entry, just as it is in the card 
catalog. But the entry means 
one or more linotype lines or 
slugs. With a little practice 
in handling and reading type one can file or 
cumulate new entries into the catalog in the 


The Entry 
the Unit 


have had if cards for every entry had been 
sent to them to be filed in their own card 
catalogs. 

So much for the simple facts concerning 
a single index. Next arises the important 
question of the expense of 
the catalog. ‘There is not 
only the compiling but the 
making up into pages and forms, the press 
work, the paper, binding and postage. As 


Cost and 
Service 





“FILING THE CARDS” IN THE LINOTYPE SLUG CATALOG 


form of linotype slugs faster than the same 
entries on cards could be cumulated into the 
usual card catalog. When, after the forego- 
ing manipulation, the catalog in type has been 
brought down to date it is ready for the 
press. When subscribers receive their copies 
they have the same record that they might 


31 


the catalog grows from month to month the 
expense grows proportionately. Now enters 
the real problem of cumulation: viz., the plan 
that will preserve a balance between cost and 
service. The following plan of publication 
has been worked out to maintain that neces- 
sary balance. 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


To lessen increasing cost, instead of print- 
ing the larger and growing record every 
month, a supplement is printed. When the 
supplement grows to a size that is too ex- 
pensive to print it is filed into the main cata- 
log which is reprinted as a cumulated issue. 
Then a small supplement is started. For ex- 
ample, each issue for the first three months 
of the year is fully cumulated. After the 
third month fully cumulated numbers are 
issued at gradually lengthening intervals, the 
fifth, the eighth and the twelfth month, the 
December number being the annual cumula- 
tion. For each month between the full cumu- 
lated numbers a cumulative supplement is 
printed. In other words, as the year advances 
and the catalog grows in size, it is necessary 
that the periods of full cumulation be farther 
apart; but in the interval between there is a 
cumulated supplement, which, with the last 
full cumulation, requires the use of no more 
than two alphabets. 

It would, of course, be more convenient 
for the user if every issue of the year could 
be complete to date, a con- 
venience which would not 
only greatly increase the ex- 
pense but delay publication. It is a problem 
of weighing advantage against expense, one 


Meeting 
Problems 


gain against another, and choosing the great- 
est advantage for the least cost. 

In just the same way the usefulness and 
expense of a cumulation covering a period of 
years demands careful planning. With longer 
periods arise also additional questions to be 
considered, as: How permanent is the value 
of the material indexed? Will it be in use 
for two, ten or fifty years? Fina! cumula- 
tions in two-year volumes are much less ex- 
pensive than in three-year volumes, and three- 
year much less than five-year volumes. 

It was natural enough to think of five years 
as the logical period to be covered in per- 
manent volumes; but a practical consideration 
of the problem, aided by a mathematical 
proof, shows that the five-year is extravagant 
and impractical except possibly for material 
that would be used undimishingly for a cen- 
tury to come. However, the fact is that the 
major part of our literature and especially 
periodical literature has its greatest use when 
it first appears and its use grows rapidly less 
as the years pass. Accordingly, a cumulative 
plan should provide the most convenient use 
possible during the years following publica- 
tion. It is fortunate therefore that two- and 
three-yearly volumes are at once less ex- 
pensive and more useful than volumes cover- 
ing longer periods. 


THE DICTIONARY PLAN 


HE making of a classified catalog ap- 

peals to the imagination; while compil- 

ing a dictionary catalog appears to be a task 

as dry as the cumbersome book from which 
it derives its name. 

The foregoing observation probably ac- 
counts for the fact that catalog makers often 
begin with a classified plan and later for 
practical reason change to 
the dictionary plan. It is one 
more instance of the upset- 
ting of a glittering theory by 
practical experience. The CUMULATIVE 
Book INDEX was no exception. The first 
numbers were compiled on the classified plan 
with an author and subject index. Practical 


Classified 


or Dictionary 


ae 


use of the catalog, however, proved the ar- 
rangement to be tedious. An inquiry netted 
the information that practical] catalogers favor 
the dictionary plan, and, consequently, as the 
aim was to serve needs as efficiently as pos- 
sible, the first mid-year cumulation was rear- 
ranged according to the more acceptable plan. 
Type was reset using bold face type for 
author and subject headings. 

When plans were under way for the IN- 
DUSTRIAL ARTS INDEX the question arose 
as to which form to adopt. The matter was 
referred to the users of technical catalogs 
who were authority for the assertion that the 
public finds great difficulty in using the classi- 
fied form. Reference librarians corroborated 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL METHODS 


the testimony. Altho there were skeptical 
ones who doubted the possibility of making a 
successful dictionary index to technical sub- 
jects, the plan in operation now during nearly 


a decade has proved thoroly satisfactory. 
The merits of the dictionary plan are further 
endorsed thru the recent adoption of it by the 
Engineering Index and the Index Medicus. 


Mistbwouiy 1€lebASISIOr CHARGE: 


IBLIOGRAPHICAL publishing | has 

ever been a hazardous undertaking, and 
publishers have unanimously preferred to em- 
ploy time and money in more remunerative 
fields. The total amount of possible sales is 
small and the cost of production great as 
compared with other classes of publications. 
Further, a publisher is compelled to assume 
enormous risks while financing and carrying 


ative, few have been financially successful; 
and that.many have failed for the reason 
that the publishing agencies 
did not receive an adequate 
return for their efforts rather 
than that the work was not needed or not 
acceptably done. It is customary when 
worthy ventures languish for want of support 
to seek endowment or the aid of organiza- 


Substitute for 
Endowment 





STAFF OF THE CUMULATIVE BOOK INDEX 


on a bibliographical enterprise during the 
necessarily long period before returns may be 
even thought of. 

The record shows that of hundreds of 


bibliographical ventures, most of them cooper- 


a3 


tions willing to pay the deficits. Meritorious 
enterprises are often helped to success through 
assistance of this kind. The Wilson Com- 
pany whose problem of financing its publica- 
tions has been no exception to the general ex- 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


perience has, however, sought a substitute~ 
for the endowment, a constructive device, 
which might meet the difficulty and at the 
same time extend and strengthen the growing 
bib‘iographical system. 

One day the mail brought two significant 
letters that suggested a solution. One was 
from a large library making constant use of 
the READERS’ GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LIT- 
ERATURE. The request was made that 
stronger paper be used so that issues would 
last till superseded by later cumulations. The 
other letter from a small library regretted that 
it could not afford to renew its subscription. 
{Letter number one contained a fair sample of 
increasing requests for larger and better serv- 
ice while number two was equally represen- 
tative of growing expressions of regret that 
the flat subscription rate was too much for the 
smaller patron. These letters led to the ques- 
tion “‘How can we meet the demand for ex- 
tended service from larger users without 
raising the cost beyond the reach of smaller 
supporters.”’ The answer came, “By allow- 
ing each subscriber to pay in proportion to 
the amount of service used, i.e. to charge 
patrons on the basis of the service performed 
for each rather than a flat rate for all.” 
Necessity, therefore, with the help of the two 
letters, mothered the invention of the “‘Service 
Basis of Charge.”’ 

The present service basis method of charg- 
ing for the Wilson publications went thru 
several stages of develop- 
ment. It grew up thru years 
of patient experimentation. 
A beginning was made with 
the READERS’ GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LIT- 


Evolution of 
Service Basis 





* If a philanthropist should be asked to endow a 
bibliographical publication he might ask why the 
subscribers would not give it adequate support if it 
was really worth doing. The answer would be that 
not a large number of institutions were interested in 
that field, that the price would have to be reason- 
able and within reach of the smaller users, but that 
to some institutions such a publication would be very 
valuable—even indispensable—and for that reason it 
was well worthy of a philanthropist’s aid. The pur- 
pose of the service basis of charge is to give oppor- 
tunity to those major beneficiaries to support biblio- 


graphical enterprises in proportion to the advantages 
derived from them. 


34 


ERATURE, and from that the plan was gradu- 
ally extended to other publications as cir- 
cumstances made it advisable. With the 
modification of the idea to fit each new index 
the plan became more scientific by including 
more of the factors which should be con- 
sidered in determining a fair basis of charge. 

The justice of this method of charging 
for bibliographical service is apparent. [he 
library having few readers, open only a part 
of the day, or perhaps a 
few days in the week, like- 
wise a bookseller with a 
small stock and small sales, naturally would 
not make the extended use of periodical and 
book indexes that the large library does, with 
its sizable staff, long hours and many readers, 
or the large bookseller who has patrons of 
widely varying interests, all counting upon 
him for complete and dependable information 
on their special subjects. It would be quite 
as fair to charge a flat rate for electric light 
in the laborer’s cottage and the magnate’s 
mansion as to demand equal support for in- 
dexes from the struggling village library and 
the prosperous metropolitan institution. Ihe 
great question, therefore, became one of how 
to meter the service. 


Justice of 


the Method 


In the first stage libraries were divided 
into groups according to the number of peri- 
odicals subscribed for that were indexed, 
their annual income being a 
secondary factor. A flat rate 
was established for each 
group. In the second stage, the service was 
taxed on the basis of a flat rate for each 
periodical indexed, the rate being determined 
by the average number of entries required. 
The first plan was used in the READERS’ 
GUIDE, the second in the READERS’ GUIDE 
SUPPLEMENT and the INDUSTRIAL ARTS 
IDEX at their beginning. The third stage in 
the development of the service required that 
the cost of indexing any periodical be com- 
puted and divided among the libraries that 
subscribe for it. The fewer the libraries sub- 
scribing, the higher the cost. It has been no- 
ticed, however, that when a periodical has 
been added to the list of those indexed more 
libraries soon subscribe for it and the cost 


Experimental 
Stages 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL METHODS 


of indexing can then be divided among a 
larger number. 

As a basis for arriving at the desired in- 
formation, a record is obtained from each 
library of the periodicals actually subscribed 
for. From this record the 
approximate number of sub- 
scribers to each periodical 
may be computed and a rate fixed. For the 
INTERNATIONAL INDEX TO PERIODICALS, 
INDUSTRIAL ARTS INDEX and AGRICUL- 
TURAL INDEX the cost of indexing ranges 
from $1.25 to $10 per thousand entries in 
proportion as the number sharing the cost 
ranges from fifty to five hundred. In the case 
of the READERS’ GUIDE, whose number of 
subscribers is many times greater and whose 
listed periodicals closely rival one another in 
popularity, it is possible to make a flat rate 
of 35c per magazine indexed. For each of 
the indexes a minimum rate has been fixed 
which is sufficient to cover the cost of mul- 


Fixing 
Rates 


tiplying copies and also to contribute some- 
something to the initial cost of editorial work 
and typesetting. In the case of the CUMU- 
LATIVE Book INDEX and the Book RE- 
viEW DIcEsT, the rate to libraries is based 
upon the annual income or the amount spent 
annually for books, and the rate to booksell- 
ers is based upon the annual turnover. 


The service basis of charge is not only fair 
but advantageous as well, and actually results 
in lower prices for all. If a flat rate should 
be made low enough to bring 
a bib'iographical publication Rates Actually 

ee ; Lower 
within reach of small I 
braries, the total sales would not be enough 
to cover the cost of production, not to men- 
tion any Improvements in service desired by 
the larger libraries and of use to them only. 
If a flat rate should be made high, so many 
of the small libraries would be forced to drop 
out that the total income would not be suf- 
ficient to cover the cost. If, however, both 
the large and small libraries are permitted to 
pay in proportion to the va'ue of the service, 
the rate to both can be made lower and the 
total income will warrant the best indexing 
service. 

It was not to be expected that a new sys- 
tem of taxation would instantaneously meet 
with general approval. The 
merits of the scheme needed 
to be set forth and demon- 
strated. Needless to say, however, we have 
yet to hear complaint from any subscriber 
paying a low rate. Further, our files contain 
many letters expressing the hearty endorse- 
ment of libraries paying the highest rates. It 
Is encouraging to record that approval of the 
service basis has become almost unanimous. 


General 
Approval 


CONSISTENT SUBJECT HEADINGS 


HE value of subject headings in biblio- 
graphical publications is directly propor- 
tional to the exactness and reasonableness of 
their selection. We recall that in the early 
days of our indexing a cataloger would go 
the rounds of the editorial staff asking under 
what heading one would look for such-and- 
such an article. [his was the beginning of 
the laboratory method of determining the 
most simple, exact and useful heading for 
easy reference. [hru long experience the 
method has been extended and refined and a 
subject heading habit of thought acquired. 
Not only must there be a scientific method 
for the choice of subject headings but the 
genius whe presides over the work need have 


35 


a wide range of qualifications, including re- 
liable information on almost every conceiv- 
able subject, an analytical mind, keen obser- 
vation and discrimination, and that practical 
safeguard, sound judgment, which 1s invari- 
ably accompanied by good common sense. 
Yet, even with so ample equipment, the task 
has many perplexing and discouraging prob- 
lems. 

If to be consistent in the choice of sub- 
ject headings in one bibliographical publica- 
tion is a difficult matter, only 
consider how much more so 
is uniform consistency thruout 
several indexes, under different editorship and 


in different fields| As an aid in the 


A Difficult 
Task 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


effort to minimize inconsistencies in the pub- 
lications of The Wilson Company it has been 
thought worth while to make a trial of print- 
ing the subject headings from three publica- 
tions with all references used. 


Aid to 
Minimizing In carrying out the experi- 
Mistakes ment, parallel columns have 


been adopted in which appear respectively the 
headings from the READERS’ GUIDE, the 
AGRICULTURAL INDEX and the INDUs- 
TRIAL ARTS INDEX. A 
glance shows what headings 
are used in one, two or all 
three of the indexes and what subjects have 
been referred from. This arrangement, de- 


Deadly 
Parallels 


signed to catch mistakes, served the intended 
purpose and revealed that, in spite of every 
precaution, inconsistencies have crept in, on 
account of which our editors at first vetoed 
the suggestion that copies be offered for sale. 
After a thoro tryout and careful revision, 
however, a new edition will be printed and 
sold. The few copies needed for use in our 
editorial office will cost more than a $1,000, 
but the editors have agreed that the expense 
is fully warranted. It may be added for the 
encouragement of catalogers that the charge 
for the volumes will not be based upon the 
original cost of the service for our own use. 


PRINTED INDEXES VS. CARDS 


N the early days of the CUMULATIVE 
Book INDEX no little time was spent in 
calculating the comparative cost of printed 
cumulations and printed cards. As a result 
of the computation it was estimated that an 
ordinary entry could be 
printed and delivered sixteen 
times at the cost of printing 
the same record on a card once. The econ- 
omy in paper, press work and postage was 
hardly believable. Thus again cost finding 
put into the discard all plans for card print- 
ing and saved the CUMULATIVE Book IN- 
DEX from the failure that has followed every 
attempt, commercial and “supported,” to 


Sixteen 
to One 


make card distribution serve general biblio- 
graphical purposes. 

Also, a serious question connected with 
the printed card method is the filing of the 
cards and the expense for cabinets. [he pres- 
ent indexing of the Wilson publications in 
card form would require a cabinet. of three 
hundred drawers for each year’s information. 
From that fact arises a suggestion that it may 
be forehanded for libraries to consider a situ- 
ation that is likely to grow problematic. Might 
it not be more advantageous to have the lit- 
erature of recent years segregated in cumu- 
lative volumes ? 


36 


WHYS AND WHEREFORES 
OF BIBLIOGRAPHY 


THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL URGE 


HE. following observation and confes- 

sion, taken from Mr. Wilson’s jottings, 
may suggest, with a smack of the human 
document, something of the true inwardness 
of the formative forces that have inspired and 
shaped the course of The H. W. Wilson 
Company: 

“Only the other day a young man came 
to me explaining an ambitious bibilographical 
undertaking in which he had been engaged 
for some years. In the course of the con- 
versation he admitted that he had spent 
all of the capital he had at the start; that he 
was now working in a restaurant to keep him- 
self going till he could finish; and that his 
family had told him he was unbalanced, had 
disowned him and would give him no further 
help. 

“Tt is difficult to answer the question, Why 
do bibliographers leave home? Can it be a 
lure, a dis-ease that has no official name but 
which might be called the 
Bibliographical Urge? If so, 
the germ has not been iso- 
lated and, consequently, no cure is forthcom- 
ing. The malady is almost always financially 
fatal. The only known relief is a large dose 
of practicalism to antidote the idealism of the 
patient. Furthermore, it is contagious and 
there is always danger that bibliographical 
idealists who have neither native nor acquired 


Germ Not 
Isolated 


practicalism will communicate this dis-ease to 
benevolent friends and sometimes even to in- 
stitutions and ‘foundations.’ If the latter are 
off guard or do not happen to consult the 
possessor of balanced bibliographical vision, 
Heaven help them! 

‘“When I am asked why I started in the 
bibliographical publishing business I usually 
say it was because I felt the need of cumu- 
lated catalogs in my book- 
selling business. “The truth 
probably is that I had a bad 
case of Bibliographical Urge. I was fortified 
perhaps by a variety of experiences and busi- 
ness necessities which gave me the saving 
inoculation of practicalism. Some of the ex- 
periences were Christmas season clerking in 
bookstores, substituting at the Minneapolis 
Public Library, working at the printing trade, 
and later owning a book and printing busi- 
ness. It was after nine years of practical 
experience in making both ends meet in the 
book business that I yielded to the urge and 
invaded the index publishing field, at. the 
same time continuing the book business. For 
it was apparent that the book business would 
have to earn funds to support the biblio- 
graphica! work at its start. It also became ap- 
parent that if the deficit caused by publishing 
indexes should exceed the profit made in the 
bookstore both would come to an end.’ 


Earning 


While Learning 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PLANNING 


E have grown familiar with the modern 

idea of city planning, campus planning 
and many another form of planning, as the 
safeguard of beauty and economy along the 
course of future growth and expansion. We 
have come to look upon this prevision, first 
of all, as a significant sign of efficient times. 


In the early days of a certain great uni- 
versity of the middle west whenever the leg- 
islature voted money for a new building, the 
Regents would have a meeting, choose an 
architect and decide upon material for the 
structure. Snatching a moment from a busy 
day a committee from their number would 


oe 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


walk hurriedly around the campus, find a fa- 
vorable site and say, ‘‘Let’s stick it here.”’ 


— 








are running it costs only slightly more to print 
two thousand copies than it does to print a 


NEW AND OLD COVER 


And they did. After “‘sticking’’ buildings of 
great variety here and there throughout na- 
turally beautiful grounds during the period 
of twenty years, the Regents one day looked 
upon their work and called it bad. Then it 
was that they paid Architect Cass Gilbert a 
handsome sum to make a plan for the cam- 
pus. Today all of the new buildings fit into 
that general design, likewise buildings erected 
to replace old structures. 

‘There is in the foregoing a suggestive idea 
for the field of bibliography. Why should 
there not be a bibliographical planning com- 

mission to chart the field and 


Wanted! A assign the workers? Why 
Bibliographical il sure : 
eae: should not a bibliographical 


architect make a plan for 
the future so that all who are willing to enter 
the field, whether as compilers or publishers, 
may be encouraged to work to a definite 
plan? In the event of scientific consolidation 
and cooperation there would be no neglect of 
certain fields that have as yet been untouched; 
nor would there be duplication, the greatest 
menace to bibliographical success. It is true 
that if the same bibliographical work is com- 
piled and printed twice it will cost twice as 
much as tho printed once. When the presses 


thousand. If work is duplicated, either those 
who buy must double their expenditure or 
those who publish must be cut off with a 
fraction of needed compensation. Some li- 
brarians, when asked for advice as to whether 
a certain proposed bibliographical work is 
warranted, will say, ““Oh, yes, we can’t have 
too many of such publica- 
tions.” It is a fact, notwith- We Waals 
. re ; of Trade 
standing, that competition is 
likely to be the death rather than the life of 
bibliographical trade, for it tolerates ““The 
good that is enemy of the best’? and draws 
away some support which is necessary to keep 
the “‘best’’ up to its high standard. 

All of which argument lends conviction to 
the contention that bibliographical publishing 
is a natural monoply, in the 
sense, for example, that the Bibliographical 


: Publishing 
great metropolitan water sup- Ne Tae 
ply is a natural monoply. In Monopoly 


the interests, therefore, of 

economy of expense, utilization of ideas and 
ability, and efficiency of service, there might 
well be a survey and a plan looking toward 
general cooperation to ensure a maximum of 
reliability and development in bibliographical 
publishing. | | 


A LOOK AHEAD 


COOPERATION—OLD AND NEW 


HEN first used in connection with 

bibliographical undertakings the word 
cooperation meant literally working together. 
The best early example of the resu-ts of a 
division of work in making indexes is offered 
in Poole’s Index. Mr. Poole 
started his indexing enterprise 
when the number of libraries 
interested in supporting a catalog of this kind 
was limited and when it was easier to secure 
subscriptions payable in work than in dollars. 
Consequently, cooperation in the work of in- 
dexing was more practicable than financial 
cooperation. Also, to secure cooperation in 
work is a simpler matter than to enlist finan- 
cial cooperation because of loyalty to the 
project and because people are apt to con- 
sider their own time cheap. 

However, when libraries increased in num- 
ber; when it became the pride of librarians 
to serve the public, to wear out books thru 
use rather than merely to collect them, the 
time of the staff was too fully occupied to 
do cooperative indexing. ‘The little time, 
therefore, which might be snatched from rou- 
tine work for indexing would not warrant the 
effort. The results could not be satisfactory. 
For it is dificult enuf for a staff of special- 
ists devoting their entire time to the work of 
indexing always to use, for instance, the same 
subject heading for the same kind of ma- 
terial. No wonder then that many coopera- 
tors doing a little indexing in addition to 
regular duties would put similar articles un- 
der various headings, to the end that a library 
patron was compelled to use his wits to think 
of possible places where articles might be 
found. Further, even though it were possible 
to secure satisfactory piece-meal work, a gen- 
eral editor who might undertake to correlate 
carefully the contributions of minds many 
would find the task more difficult than to do 
the entire work from the beginning. 

When the subscription to printed indexes 
seems high it may be comforting to remember 


Division 


of Work 


39 


that in any event it is cheaper and the service 
better than the former cooperation in work. 
It may also help to a fair comparison to con- 
trast the cost and use of the printed indexes 
with the cost and value of analytical and 
other cataloging done in a library. The in- 
forming results of the comparison which are 
little short of amazing are decidedly in favor 
of the printed indexes. 

The larger libraries, some of which em- 
ploy cataloging staffs equal in number to that 
of The H. W. Wilson Company, might, to 
their advantage, ask the ques- 
tion whether much more of 
their indexing and cataloging 
might not be done more efficiently and eco- 
nomically thru centrally printed indexes 
which, in the making, might profitably intro- 
duce a new idea of cooperation, the only one 
that seems justifiable and practicable today 
in the interests of perfecting and democratiz- 
ing library service. For example, if each of 
ten of the largest libraries should delegate one 
of their expert catalogers to work in our 
cataloging department, each of the ten would 
receive in return, in printed form, the product 
of the ten catalogers. Cooperation of this 
kind, once endorsed and fully developed, 
could be made to result in the economy and 
efficiency for which all libraries are zealously 
striving. 

Further discussion or demonstration is not 
needed to show that as the service of li- 
brarianship has developed there has been im- 
perative demand for a scien- 
tific system of bibliography 
to keep pace with the growth. The time has 
come when bibliographical work ought not be 
maintained as a library side line or as a piece- 
meal undertaking among several libraries. Ihe 
problems are too vexing, the demands for 
accuracy too urgent, the need for standard- 
ization and democratization too great. [he 
solution lies in expert, scientific, central super- 
vision. 


Division 


of Cost 


Centralization 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


NEW PRINTING PROCESSES 


DEVELOPMENT of photographic 

and lithographic processes in a few 

years may completely revolutionize the present 

methods of printing indexes. The new meth- 

eds may displace in our own printing depart- 

ment the eight linotypes and the more than 

one hundred tons of entries standing in type 
metal. 

By this photolithographic method, recently 

patented in Switzerland but not yet perfected 


for catalog work, we may eventually keep all 
entries on cards which may at any time be 
copy may be reproduced on a sensitized paper 
page. [hen by a photographic process the 
copy may be reproduced on a sensitized paper 
which in turn can be transferred to a litho- 
graphic plate for the printing of an edition. 
The cards may be kept indefinitely and rear- 
ranged and printed in any manner desired. 


NEW FIEEDS 


HE service of [The Wilson Company 

has proved the practicability of central- 
ized cooperative cataloging as worked out in 
the “cumulative plan of publication” and the 
“service basis plan of financial support.’ The 
next step is the application of the methods to 
new fields in which their operation will with- 
out doubt be fully as satisfactory as in the 
fields already tested. 

The discontinuance of the seventeen annual 
volumes of the J/nternational Catalog of 
Scientific Literature leaves abandoned fields 
open and invites occupancy. Other pre-war 


40. 


publications, serving similar purposes, have 
also been discontinued. The cumulative meth- 
ods are not in any way limited to indexes 
but are equally applicable to abstracts, an- 
notated lists and other forms in which the 
new literature of any department of knowl- 
edge may be made available. 

The Wilson Company, thru the voluntary 
action of its board of directors, has been made 
in effect a public utility corporation. Its finan- 
cial reports are published each year and its 
affairs are open for inspection to all who are 
entitled to make inquiries. 


PERSONNEL 


T has been impossible in the previous brief account to mention individually the many 
workers who have given able and effective service to The Wilson Company at various 


times during the twenty-five years. 


The following list includes former members of the 


editorial staff and some present members besides two of the Minneapolis group not men- 


tioned in the foregoing text. 


ARNOLD, Florence A. Joined the editorial staff of 
the Company in 1916 as assistant. Became as- 
sistant editor of the Agricultural Index and suc- 


ceeded Mrs. Shimer as its editor in 1919. 


Bacon, Corinne. Left the position of librarian and 
director of the Drexel Library School upon its 
discontinuance in 1914 to become editor for the 
Standard Catalogs. Edited the Children’s Cata- 
log, the Sociology and Biography sections and is 
now engaged in a new edition of the Fiction Cata- 
log. 


Bias, Henrietta. Assistant editor for the Standard 
Catalogs from April 1916 to January 1917. Now 
in the Library of Congress. 


BuLtock, Edna Dean. Came from the Legislative 
Reference Library of Nebraska to index the cur- 
rent numbers of the Readers’ Guide while Miss 
Guthrie was engaged in preparing the second five- 
year cumulative volume. Also edited some of the 


Debaters’ Handbooks. Returned to the Legislative 
Reference Library in Lincoln. 


CuizBEE, Azalea. Indexer for the Readers’ Guide 
Supplement from 1918 to 1919 when she left to 
catalog the collection of the American Art Asso- 
ciation. 


Craic, Helen. Indexer for the Industrial Arts Index 
from July 1915 to May 1917. Now assistant 
librarian for the Western Electric Company. Prior 
to her coming to The Wilson Company, she had 
been indexer of periodicals in the United En- 
gineering Societies Libraries. 


Cruice, Mary Z. Formerly cataloger for the Pratt 
Institute Free Library. Manager of the White 
Plains branch of the Wilson Package Library 
from September 1915 to June 1917. 


EcBErT, Mabel. Came in 1915 from the Braddock, 
Penn., Public Library to assist in the editorial 
work on the Children’s Catalog. Later was edi- 
torial assistant for the Public Affairs Information 
Service till her resignation in April 1917. 


Emery, Agnes Cunnif. Joined the staff of the busi- 
ness office in 1912. Has held the responsible 
position of cashier since 1913. In February, 1923, 
she married James Emery of New York. 


4] 


ERICKSON, Bernie. Head of the shipping depar- 
ment which position he has occupied since the 
Company's removal to New York. 


FANNING, Clara E. Editor of the Book Review 
Digest from its beginning until her resignation in 
1914. Also edited the first of the Debaters’ Hand- 
books, contributing several volumes to the series. 
Now with the Minneapolis Public Library in an 
executive position. 


Jackson, Margaret. Came from long experience 
on the staff of the Century and from a course of 
training in the New York Public Library School 
to become editor of the Book Review Digest at 
the time of Miss Fanning’s resignation. Resigned 
in 1917 to accept the position of instructor in the 


New York Public Library School. 


JOHNSEN, Julia E. Joined the staff in 1906 to take 
charge of the Cumulative Reference Library. At 
present devotes her time chiefly to compiling Hand- 


books. 


Muencu, Alice F. Joined the staff of the Interna- 
tional Index to Periodicals in 1922 to become 
indexer for the foreign periodicals. Has had much 
experience in indexing and has studied foreign 
languages abroad. 


Noyes, Charlotte. Came from the staff of the Gen- 
eral Electric Company in 1917 to succeed Miss 
Craig as indexer for the Industrial Arts Index. 
Resigned in October 1918 to become librarian for 
one of the Dupont Chemical Laboratories in Wil- 
mington. 


PAINTER, Estella. Joined the staff of the Readers’ 
‘Guide in 1908. Became its managing editor. Later 
was managing editor of the Cumulative Book Index 
until her resignation in 1921 to accept a position 


with the Near-Eastern Relief Work. 


Ree.y, Mary K. Writer of descriptive notes for the 
Book Review Digest from 1907 until she became 
editor-in-chief at the time of Miss Jackson’s resig- 
nation. Resigned in 1921 to return to the middle 
west and is now instructor in book selection for 
the Wisconsin Library School and writer of the 
book notes for the Wisconsin Library Bulletin. 


Rico, Pauline. Assistant on the staff of the Book 
Review Digest from 1915 and its managing editor 
from 1919 to her resignation in 192]. 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Ropsins, Mary E. Formerly director of the Sim- 
mons Library School. Came to The Wilson Com- 
pang in 1914 to edit the Readers’ Guide Supple- 
ment, 1907-1915. Left before the work was com- 
pleted to become Director of the Atlanta Library 
School. Is now Assistant Principal of the Syra- 
cuse Library School. 


SHImMER, Neltje Tannehill. Joined the staff of the 
Cumulative Book Index in 1902. Held responsible 
positions in the editorial office, becoming editor 
of the Agricultural Index at its beginning in 1916. 
Resigned because of family duties in 1919. and 
was succeeded by her first assistant, Miss Florence 
A. Arnold. Now with the Minneapolis Public 
Library. 


SmitH, Dorothy. Joined the staff of the Readers’ 
Guide in 1908, becoming assistant editor to Miss 
Mary E. Robbins for the cumulated volume of 
the Readers’ Guide Supplement, and later to Miss 
Agnes Van Valkenburgh for Cumulative Book 
Index. Resigned to be married in 1917. 


TANNEHILL, Bertha. Joined the staff of the Cumu- 
lative Book Index in 1900. Remained with the 
Company until its removal to White Plains, when 
she took a position in the Minneapolis Public Li- 
brary. With The Wilson Company again for the 
years 1914-15 until her marriage. Died, in 1919. 
Rendered efficient service especially in beginning 
the new Public Affairs Information Service, and 
was chiefly responsible for seeing thru the press 
the third five-year cumulation of the Readers’ 
Guide. 


TeEIcH, Emma Louise. Joined the Cumulative Book 


Index staff in 1901. Was its sole editor at the 
time of her resignation in 1920. Married Cyrus 
Williams in 1921. 


TrAcEY, Catherine. Came from the staff of the New 


York Public Library School in 1917 to succeed 
Miss Van Valkenburgh as editor of the Cumula- 
tive Book Index. Resigned 1918. 


VAN VALKENBURGH, Agnes. Came in 1916 from 


the teaching staff of the New York Public Library 
School to take the editorship of some of the De- 
baters’ Handbooks. Succeeded Miss Robbins as 
editor of the Readers’ Guide Supplement, 1907- 
1915. Became editor of the Cumulative Book 
Index while Miss Potter and Miss Emma Teich 
were engaged in the task of editing the United 
States Catalog, 1912-1917. Resigned October 
1917 to become librarian of the Bay City, Michi- 
gan Public Library. Died in 1920. Miss Van 
Valkenburgh gave all of her work most careful and 
intelligent supervision but the memory of her work, 
however, is second to the memory of her friendly 


and joyous presence. 


WiILson, Justina L. (Mrs. H. W.) Writer of ‘lee 


42 


scriptive notes for the Book Review Digest from 
its inception to 1912. Also compiled some of the 
Study Outlines. Became prominent as suffrage 
leader. At present Director of Education, Demo- 


cratic National Committee. 


PERSONNEL 


PRESENT STAFF 


ORRIC iin 


H. W. Witson, President and Treasurer 
W. C. Rowe Lt, Vice-President 
EpirH M. PHE tps, Secretary 


DIRECTORS 


H. W. Witson, W. C. Rowe ti, Marion E. Por- 
TER, EpirH M. Puetps, Louise TeicH, LEon 
Henry, FRANCES. SANVILLE 


BUSINESS OFFICE 


ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT 


C. B. Co.uier, Accountant 
AGNEs C. Emery, Cashier 
GertTruDE No.an, Bookkeeper 
Dorotuy M. THompson 
EmiLy PATTERSON 

Evsig SMITH 

Mary LaHEy 


SALES DEPARTMENT 
W. C. Rowe tt, Manager 


EpirH M. Puetps, Editor and Manager, General, 


Publications 
Juxia E. JoHNSEN, Compiler and Assistant editor 
FRANCES SANVILLE, Advertising Manager ' 
Frances A. HENNEssSY, Correspondent’ 

Rose STRUMER, Correspondent 

Marcar—eT DurrRENBERGER, Billing Clerk 
Lucy Vast, File Clerk 

Mivprep A. Ev.iott, Mailing Clerk 
Epity G. Davies, Assistant Billing Clerk 


STENOGRAPHERS 
Marie B. CHENEY 
SapieE G. Masie 


Grace B. ELuiotT 
Marie B. HERRHAMMER 


‘TYPISTS 
Epna M. HarTMANN 
Ciara DuRRENBERGER a, 
MarcuERITE SPENCE 


EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT 


CUMULATIVE Book INDEX 


ELEANOR Hawkins, Editor 
Frances N. Murray 
Leita HILDRETH 

GiaFirA DEFREITAS 
LENorE R. Martin 
LouisE GOLDER 

RutH Warp 

MarGuERITE AHEARN 


‘Marie B. LEIDINGER 


Rose BENDER 
Dorotuy Z. SCHAFFER 


Book REVIEW DIGEST. AND 
STANDARD CATALOGS 


Marion A. KnicuHT, Editor 

Mertice M. James, Managing Editor 

Emma H. ScHumm, Writer, Descriptive Notes 
KATHLEEN S. Hayes, House Librarian 
Witma ADAMS 

ANNETTE LANGROCK 

LILLIAN BENDER 


READERS’ GUIDE TO PERIODICAL 
LITERATURE 


ELIZABETH J. SHERWOOD, Editor 
BErRTHA JoEL, Indexer 

DorotHy Goopman, Assistant Editor 
JustinE M. Stor 

FRANCES PURCELL 

Marcaret Woop 

Grace No.Lan 

JENNETTE I. CONNOLLY 


INDUSTRIAL ARTS INDEX 


Marion E. Potter, Editor 
Louise TeicH, Managing Editor 
Marion I. Lorp, Indexer 

May CarPENTER 

Evsiz SCHOENHOLTZ 

BELLA TRAUM 

MarcueERITE E. KLossetT 


432: 


A QUARTER CENTURY OF 


INTERNATIONAL INDEX TO PERIODICALS 


Lucie Wat.ace, Editor 

AuiceE F. Muencu, Indexer 

Mary WryscuHocraD, Assistant Editor 
EMILY WySCHOGRAD 

Bea JosEPH 

BERTHA AUSUBEL 


AGRICULTURAL INDEX 


FLorENcE A. ARNOLD, Editor 
Haze L. Lewis, Indexer 
ANGELINA VWASTI 

IRENE A. HARTMANN 

Eva R. CotTrer 


CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 


MAGAZINE DEPARTMENT 

Eruinc O. S. Erickson, Manager 
FRANK Peterson, Bibliographer 
Marie VAcHovtTz, Stenographer 
HELEN Dosrovotska, Billing Clerk 
HELEN De Lanoy 
CATHERINE LAHEY 

Collators 


ANN CARROLL 


Jos—EPH PAGANO 


MANUFACTURING DEPARTMENT 


Leon Henry, Superintendent 
Emma H. Mayer, Clerk 


LINOTYPE Room 


CorNwa.L_ L. ARNOLD 
Epity C. JENSEN 
ALICE COLLETTI 
Oscar YOUNG 

James H. Green 
CHARLES CALENDA 


H. J. Rosinson 
Mary Morcan 
Perry E. Kent, Machinist 


Operators 


PROOFREADERS 


Lucy G. KELLEY 
GERTRUDE E.. Moore 
HELEN S. Mauk 
Tuomas B. REINER 


COMPOSING Room 


Epwarp S. KELLEY 
DomINIcK COLLETTI 
Louis ZaTT 
Louis Rome 


Compositors 


THomas BarreTT, Stoneman 
WALTER WoopsBury, Ass’t Stoneman 


AcNneEs Dorney, Combiner 
ANNA HamiLTon, Combiner 
JuLtes HorrMan 

Leon Wincic 


PREss ROOM 


WILLIAM ScHoTT, Pressman 
GeorcE A. HoFrMan, Assistant 
BarNEY WOLFSON, Job Pressman 
PETER FLynwn, Porter 


BINDERY 
MIcHAEL VAaAsTI 
CHARLES BARTON 
THEODORE EGGLEMANN 
JoHN J. SYLVESTER 
ALBERT VIRTAKALLIO 
Harry Rosen 
TERESA QUINN 
ANNA JoBSE 
ANNE SMITH 
Littian MonaHANn 
LouisE WRIGHT 
Mary FINUCAN 
Mary STEPHENSON 


SHIPPING DEPARTMENT 
BerniE ErICcKSON 


ALPHONSE PAvHIccl 
RutH CLow 


CAFETERIA 
VirciniA Brown, Cook 
ANNA Hocan 


CARETAKERS 
J. CALLAGHAN 
Marinus JoBsE 
ANNA Hocan 


44 








